Traffic Policies for Sustainable Traditional Environments: the Case of Ankara Citadel

Abstract

Traditional environments were built in conformity with social, cultural and technological circumstances that shape their chronological and geographical framework. The absence of motor vehicles was their common characteristics at the times they were built and developed. This is probably the principal reason of the sense of human scale that rules these environments. Consequently, vehicular traffic is one of the main factors affecting negatively traditional environments. Besides various factors such as pollution, noise, etc. motor traffic ruins the social life and the human scale that exist in traditional settlements. Urban transportation modes have dissimilar physical and technical characteristics affecting urban environment in different ways. This diversity of properties creates the possibility of formulating alternative policies by supporting or discouraging the use of particular transportation modes.