Last week a local green group organized a six-kilometer drag race in Israel. A bus, a bicycle, and a car competed to see who could most quickly get from the suburbs of Tel Aviv into the city center. As expected, the bike arrived first, followed by the bus, and then the car, which got bogged down in the city's notorious traffic.
The result of the race may not have been a surprise, but it does underscore Israel's need for a modern, effective transit system. For a country whose residents have long been dependent on private cars and local buses for most of their transportation needs, selling the idea of transit may not be easy, but it's important. The government seems to agree, with the country's three largest cities in the midst of major transit projects.
Of the three systems being developed, Tel Aviv's is the most elaborate, expensive, and controversial. Construction has already underway on the network, a combination of light rail, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), and subway, but progress has been slowed by green groups, city residents, and Israel's central government, which wants the subway scrapped in favor of the less pricey BRT. With the threat of lawsuits hanging over the project, don't expect this one to be completed anytime soon.
In Haifa, officials recently installed the city's first dedicated bus lane. The complete BRT network should be fully up and running by 2010, and will become part of the city's larger Metronit system, which carries commuters from central Haifa into the suburbs.
The first branch of Jerusalem's transit system will be a light rail line that runs through the center of the city, turning areas of downtown into car free areas, and future development plans call for several BRT branches. Years of project construction throughout Jerusalem have left city retailers, residents, and commuters wondering if the finished network will actually be worth it, and the quality of some of the work has been questioned. The estimated completion date for the system has been bumped back to 2011.
On a national level, Israel has been expanding its intercity train system over the past decade, with passenger numbers consistently exceeding expectations. Plans call for the intercity network to eventually connect with the urban transit systems currently being developed.
Work on the projects is slow and often less than smooth, but important to the future of this country of 7.8 million. Israel is also known for its reckless drivers and high level of traffic fatalities (though some data contradicts this), and there is evidence that congestion and air pollution in the country is increasing each year.
But Israel's tiny size is perhaps the most compelling reason for the country to take rail and transit seriously. At just over 10,000 square miles, Israel is tiny enough to be easily connected by transit, and literally running out of space to build new roads.
Photo by Flickr user dlisbona
