School Service Buses

When people in North America say "school bus", they automatically think of those big yellow BlueBird buses of movies and indeed, of reality. With a population hovering at about 15 million, and with some streets designed 500 years ago, Istanbul could never host such large vehicles. Enter the 18 seat "service bus" which takes the 1,000, 000 or so students to and from school every day. These buses are then hired by companies to take their white collar workers to and from work. Thus, school service buses aim to get students to school for an 8:00 a.m. start, then they head out to pick up workers for a 9:00 a.m. company start. Again, in the afternoon, students head home at 3:30 or 4:00 and the buses then pick up workers at the end of the work day around 6:00 ... or 7:00 ... or 8:00. And when a snow holiday is declared by the governor, thousands of these vehicles disappear from the streets, allowing better circulation of traffic, snow removal equipment, etc. Of course, not the only reason to get a snow holiday :)