The İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality began installing traffic cameras at various points in the city on April 12, 2007 in order to minimize traffic violations. As part of the system called the Electronic Detection System (EDS), 115 cameras were installed to detect red light violations, 14 cameras were installed to detect vehicles driving in the emergency lane and 14 were installed to detect drives who drive over the tram line.
The installation of the cameras cost TL 45 million, and it revealed that 630,575 drivers have been caught running a red light, 120,747 have been seen driving in the emergency lane and 52,783 have been captured in the tram lane between April of 2007 and April of 2010. A total 519 fines, or TL 88, 813, have been collected for all violations in the three years.
Meanwhile, according to data provided by the municipality, 179,000 people have benefited from the CepTrafik application, which allows İstanbulites to access traffic information and recommended travel times through their cell phones. Launched in 2007 the application was upgraded in 2008 through the cooperation of the municipality, Turkcell and Microsoft.
