No one understands you as much as the pavements... Neither as much as you understand the pavements...

One day when I was lost in my own thoughts in the crowded streets of Istanbul, the chaos on the streets made me think. While speeding up my steps, I couldn't help making a small criticism to myself. "I should keep my head up while walking," I thought, "because I am always looking at the ground." I raised my head with this little criticism, but only 15 seconds later I tripped on the broken stones of the pavement and could not avoid falling.

"This stupid city and stupid pavements!" I muttered. This simple sentence was actually drawing attention to one of the biggest problems of Istanbul. The city's pavements are always half-assed and usually single-person. When someone comes from the other side, it is unclear who should walk on the side of the road. What should parents with prams do? What about wheelchair users?

Of course, not every pavement in Istanbul is like this. There are places with wide, beautiful pavements with benches and rubbish bins. But when we consider this situation, we realize that pavements are a matter of identity. It is like a label that gives us information about the area.

What are pavements trying to tell us? They tell us about the development of the area. The pavements offered by the area to people are the first step of development. The narrower and poorly maintained the pavements are, the more the area has not been considered and has remained in the background. At the same time, pavements are the first thing we understand how well the planning is done. Because when the desired plan does not emerge, people have always been the first to be ignored when planning Istanbul. However, there is nothing more than people in Istanbul.

Pavements have also been a price indicator. One of the first things we see in property project advertisements is a woman walking her dog happily on the pavement. You must have a lot of money to have a place to step. You have to deserve the pavement in Istanbul. Children playing ball in neighborhood have to be a little more careful, what can we do?

Sidewalks are slowly increasing, I am aware of that, but when the population is increasing so much, the rate of increase in sidewalks is never enough. One day, we will have pavements where we will all pass and more than one person can fit. That's when I will write an article about bicycle lanes.