Since 2021, the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) designed, manufactured and established the sea taxi system in the Strait of Istanbul (Bosphorous) consisting of a bridge between Europe and Asia. The water taxis work just like regular taxis with a reservation system and has a fleet of 50 operating water taxis.
The aim is to support sea transportation mode over land transportation. Sea taxis have 10 people capacity and are currently serving 48 piers operating 24h/day through the “İBB Sea Taxi” mobile application. Passengers can make reservations by choosing the piers, date, and time.
The challenge is however, that a business model cannot be created considering the demands of passengers on the application and the integration of other PT types. The limited number of water taxis available and the excess and distribution of the number of piers limit the potential of the operation. To solve this problem, there is a great and pervasive need to increase potential capacity via the optimization of the number of vehicles accessing the piers.
The solution should meet at least one of the following objectives:
The solution should target at least one of the following impacts:
•Predictions and simulations tool to estimate the response of the transport with variable demand and the ability to adapt the fleet size to a given situation
•Reduction of the carbon footprint by shifting from road to water transport
•Improved use experience by providing more efficient trips and a reduction on the waiting time
•Connecting the city’s real needs with the mobility ecosystem
