City Buses
There are two types of local bus systems in Turkey. One line is controlled by the state, and the other line is private. Tickets for both lines cost the same but are not interchangeable. To ride a municipal bus, one must purchase tickets at ticket booths or kiosks and then deposit the ticket in a box under the eyes of the driver on the bus; one cannot enter a bus without having already purchased a ticket. It is possible to buy a ticket or a block of tickets at the ticket booths but to purchase a monthly pass (with discounts for students and senior citizens), one must go to a bus station. Monthly passes are accepted by both bus systems and even in trams and city trains. There are also electronic tickets, "intelligent tickets," that can be used in buses, ferries, trams, and reloaded monthly or when necessary. To ride the private bus line, one pays the ticket master on the bus itself. Do not be confused by the varying colors of buses throughout the cities. Rather than denoting the distinct lines, the colors reflect the environmental friendliness of the buses. More and more subways are now being built in large cities, and these are replacing buses as the preferred mode of transportation.