Karaoglanoglu Coastal Road – Side Street Visibility Gap at Dusk
Along Karaoglanoglu (Karaoğlanoğlu) coastal road, several short inland side streets connect residential pockets to the main seafront corridor. These junctions are not signalized. They rely on visual judgment and gap assessment.
The exposure forms between 18:00–19:15, particularly in autumn and winter months.
At dusk, ambient light shifts rapidly. The sky retains brightness, but ground-level contrast weakens. Vehicles traveling along the main corridor activate headlights, yet surrounding structures and parked cars create fragmented shadow zones.
The risk is not excessive speed. It is visibility distortion.
A recurring scenario develops at one of the narrow inland connectors feeding into the westbound lane. A local driver edges forward from the side street, attempting to assess an acceptable gap in approaching traffic. From that position, sightlines are partially blocked by:
• Parked vehicles along the curb
• Decorative roadside vegetation
• Slight curvature in the coastal alignment
Approaching vehicles appear intermittently between visual obstructions. Distance is perceived correctly in fragments rather than continuously.
At the same time, drivers on the main corridor experience a different distortion. Headlights from opposing eastbound traffic create momentary glare bands across the carriageway. When a vehicle emerges from a darker side street into the lit corridor, detection is delayed by a fraction of a second.
The entry vehicle commits to the turn based on partial visual information. The through vehicle reacts with sharper braking than expected.
Compression follows.
Seasonality amplifies the pattern. In summer, twilight extends gradually, allowing smoother visual adaptation. In late autumn and winter, light drops quickly within a short window, compressing adjustment time for both entering and through drivers.
Historically, when traffic density along Karaoglanoglu coastal road was lower, side street entries were less pressured. As corridor flow intensified, gap selection became more precise and more time-sensitive.
The geometry remains largely unchanged. Behavioural timing has tightened.
The exposure rarely leads to severe impact. It produces sudden braking triggered by late detection of a vehicle entering from a partially concealed side street during dusk transition.
As long as inland connectors feed directly into a steadily flowing coastal axis during rapid light change, side street visibility gaps at dusk will remain a recurring exposure along Karaoglanoglu coastal road.