Rising-Period of Dolmuş (Evolution-Lobbying)

The US was the main exporting country of the post-war period and Turkish urbanization got its share from that political power conversion. In post-war period Turkey, there was a great foreign currency stock during the late 1950s and Turkish citizens were able to buy a lot of US made automobiles during that period. In the mid-1950s, taxi-dolmuş service started to diversify and evolve. As the rapid urbanization continued in major Turkish cities, migration from rural to urban areas started to increase incrementally. That resulted with a new form of paratransit in metropolitan cities, which was named as minibus-dolmuş. Surely, the emergence of minibuses was not only a result of the rapid urbanization but also an outcome of the emergence of a new class, named as newcomers (migrants). In the post-war period, Turkey dealt with the consequences of rapid urbanization with the ever-increasing urban population arriving in cities from rural areas with the expectation that cities would provide wider opportunities of employment. Rapid urbanization, fueled by the migration from the rural areas to the major metropolitan cities, affected the urban form directly. Housing supply in cities were not sufficient for the influx of newcomers, and hence the newly arriving migrants met their housing need by building their own houses, known as “gecekondu”, another form of informal sector since they were unauthorized housing without permits. Gecekondu development took place on the urban fringes; however, as they were not legal and authorized developments, public transport services were not planned and operated to serve these areas (Şentürk, 2015). Neither the water and sewage services were provided to these unauthorized areas, nor publicly operated transportation services like bus operations.

Only after these neighborhoods reached a particular size and population, municipalities started to provide both road infrastructure and bus services, often with motives of political gains. Karpat (1976, 144-145) explains the importance of having a public transport service to the squatters at that period with the following statement:

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The squatters derived a feeling of equality from the fact that they travelled in common with other city residents. “Before the bus came,” explained a squatter, “We were a village near İstanbul. Now we have become a semt, a district on the outskirts of the city”. Others said that travelling on the bus forced them to learn polite manners and helped them to save the time lost walking to work places.

In general, this phase of being left without urban transport services lasted for 15-20 years in most of the gecekondu areas and that significant period was surpassed by the dolmuş services in cities like Ankara and İstanbul, which are the biggest urban areas in Turkey. With the power of meeting travel needs of particular groups of the society, dolmuş operators not only consolidated their ground in transportation network but also started to enjoy the license rents with the limitations of vehicle numbers. During the 1960s, dolmuş created its variations to strengthen its position in total transportation network on the one hand, and with the increased rents it became a lobby that started to interfere into the decision-making processes on the other hand.

Additionally, in 1961 there had been a vital change in the development of Turkish motor vehicle sector. Starting from that year the production of the minibuses started to take place in Turkey (Tekeli, 1987, 68). That industrial enterprise was the third breaking point³ in the history of dolmuş. It brought along the ease of repayment, the change of central authority policies and the consolidation of motor vehicle producer lobbying.

On the other hand, during that period, while industrial facilities were developing, their need for qualified labor force was increasing, too. The impact of dolmuş on qualified and unqualified workers appeared in different ways. Qualified workers were mostly early coming migrants in the city. They were mostly dwelling in the older gecekondu areas. They chose their district independent from the factory locations. That is why; qualified workers needed their own transportation options for commuting (home to work) trips. Private sector industrial corporations were unable to provide special services for employers. That is why; informal dolmuş services met that mobility demand of labor force. Even some dolmuş routes were especially designed to connect these fringe settlements and industrial areas (Tekeli et. al., 1976, 338). For instance, minibus services operating between gecekondu areas and

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industrial areas emerged spontaneously in metropolitan cities. While gecekondu was a kind of mechanism that minimizes distances between home and work, dolmuş or minibus services were the services, which ease the transportation between home and work for workers. Both of them emerged independent from industrialist’s supports.

Both of them are balanced by the system itself. Nevertheless, both of them promote decentralization of industry and location decision of the industrial facilities on the urban fringe (Tekeli et. al., 1976, 339). On the other hand, from the non-qualified workers perspective, existence of dolmuş operations became the job itself. To make it more clear, the employment need of newcomers (a new group migrated from rural to urban areas) emerged as an outcome of huge migrations. As industrialization started to develop recently and most of the newcomers were low skilled workers, there were not enough job opportunities. This inefficiency in employment supply resulted in the emergence of informal transit services. Related to that, sub-sectors related with the dolmuş operations emerged. In other words, in a period of affordable private car purchase, newcomers created their own job opportunities with dolmuş operations and with subsectors feeding dolmuş operations (Kılınçaslan, 2012, 26).

Not surprisingly, the last stations of the minibus dolmuş operations were around the squatter settlement zones (which are also another type of marginal sector). As a paratransit mode, dolmuş vehicles were operating according to the needs of their customers. Interestingly, population who are residing in squatter settlements were not getting off in the closest central business district but in the business zone which fits best to their own work function. That is why; the trip generation and attraction points of dolmuş vehicles were in the old center, where a huge demand for low quality labor force existed (Tekeli et. al., 1976, 20).

Expectations of the public authorities and experts were the disappearance of dolmuş services the introduction of the conventional public transport services. For example, in their book Tekeli et al. (1976, 158) stated that with the improvement of conventional modes, namely convenient public buses, fast streetcar services and maybe a metro system, maybe these conventional modes would take the place of the dolmuş vehicles. However, contrary to expectations, which assume that conventional public transport services will end the operations of paratransit, dolmuş operations continued after the city authorities started to operate buses to serve these areas. Bus was unable to be a competitor of dolmuş because of advantageous characteristics of

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paratransit mode dolmuş, which have been explained in detail in the previous chapter. Besides, because of the limited budget of the local authorities during the 1970s, the existing bus network was unable to provide a service that could match dolmuş in terms of comfort and frequency.

Empowerment and lack of regulation to dolmuş vehicles were making it difficult to solve that kind of operational problems. The engines-off strike of the Confederation of the Turkish Drivers and Automobile Association was another breaking point⁴ in terms of dolmuş operations. Municipality officials noticed the importance of public transport management and integration after this strike. This paradigm shift took place in different manners. Many of the projects following the 1980s were a result of breaking the monopolistic situation of private entrepreneurs on urban transportation networks of metropolitan cities.