The relatively frequent departure time for buses, as well as more convenient routes for pick-up and drop-off, increasingly made them the preferred mode of transportation, at the same time as they contributed to the shrinking of distances across the country. One consequence of the growing visibility of trucks and buses was the expression of distance in terms of temporal categories. Travel time between Ankara and Istanbul was reduced from 15 to 6 hours between 1948 and 1959; that between Ankara and Iskenderun from 21 to 9 hours. The assessment of distance in terms of hours and prices can be considered within the purview of what Harvey has termed compression,” the increasing temporalization of space taking on an “space-time ephemeral and dilated nature alike. Though the compression of time and space would appear to be imbued with a sense of acceleration beyond comprehension, otherwise mystifying rates of speed remained tempered and subject to measurement in terms of duration. That certitude is predicated on the mastery over nature and the prospect of territorial stability alike: remote corners of the nation, otherwise impenetrable over lengthy stretches of wintry months, are now permeated with the imperative for openness and swift exposure. The contraction of the landscape is instigated by the mounting circulation of goods, people, and capital insofar as proximity itself is measured in terms of efficiency. The people of Balgat finally attain the bus service to Ankara they have been coveting. Coal uncovered in Ereğli reaches its destination in Zonguldak. Newspapers of Istanbul are delivered to the denizens of Edirne. Each novelty is a step towards condensing and commanding the space of the nation. But the conviction and expansive logic of modernizing roads (simultaneously upgrading the methods of road building and administration, and imbuing roads themselves with a distinct civilizing capacity) readily exceed regional and temporal circumscription. Measures of space are formulated not merely in terms of travel time, but also in
The relatively frequent departure time for buses, as well as more convenient routes for pick-up and drop-off, increasingly made them the preferred mode of transportation, at the same time as they contributed to the shrinking of distances across the country. One consequence of the growing visibility of trucks and buses was the expression of distance in terms of temporal categories. Travel time between Ankara and Istanbul was reduced from 15 to 6 hours between 1948 and 1959; that between Ankara and Iskenderun from 21 to 9 hours. The assessment of distance in terms of hours and prices can be considered within the purview of what Harvey has termed “space-time compression,” the increasing temporalization of space taking on an ephemeral and dilated nature alike. Though the compression of time and space would appear to be imbued with a sense of acceleration beyond comprehension, otherwise mystifying rates of speed remained tempered and subject to measurement in terms of duration. That certitude is predicated on the mastery over nature and the prospect of territorial stability alike: remote corners of the nation, otherwise impenetrable over lengthy stretches of wintry months, are now permeated with the imperative for openness and swift exposure. The contraction of the landscape is instigated by the mounting circulation of goods, people, and capital insofar as proximity itself is measured in terms of efficiency. The people of Balgat finally attain the bus service to Ankara they have been coveting. Coal uncovered in Ereğli reaches its destination in Zonguldak. Newspapers of Istanbul are delivered to the denizens of Edirne. Each novelty is a step towards condensing and commanding the space of the nation. But the conviction and expansive logic of modernizing roads (simultaneously upgrading the methods of road building and administration, and imbuing roads themselves with a distinct civilizing capacity) readily exceed regional and temporal circumscription. Measures of space are formulated not merely in terms of travel time, but also in