A Comparative Analysis of Urban Transportation Dynamics of İstanbul and London During Covid-19 Pandemic Period

With the spread of the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) virus at the beginning of 2020, the urban transport dynamics, and urban mobility of different cities in the world have been negatively affected by the increasing number of cases and the measures taken by governments. Thus, the global cities in the United Kingdom and Turkey, which are among the countries most affected by the virus according to the number of cases, were selected for the case study. This study aims to examine and compare how the urban mobility of London and Istanbul have changed between March 2020 and June 2021 in respect of the measures/recommendations taken by the governments and the number of daily cases. The primary sources used in this study are statistics provided by the official institutions of the two countries. Based on the dataset, the study examines the connection between the restrictions, the number of cases and the types of transport in both countries. In addition, the study scrutinises changes in the short and medium-term urban transport dynamics of the case study cities within the 16-months period comparatively. In addition, it provides policy recommendations for Istanbul by addressing the actions of London and Istanbul metropolitan cities through the COVID-19 pandemic.