As every guidebook notes, the two suspension bridges over the Bosphorus in Istanbul are the only bridges in the world that connect continents. This little factoid is interesting, but it does not impress hard-pressed residents of the city stuck in a 5km tailback on a wet Friday evening.

Still, the two bridges, which between them carry more than 350,000 vehicles a day, stand as a metaphor for Turkey’s transport infrastructure: a small number of prestige projects that fail to cope with rapidly increasing demand.