There is electricity on the road: this is how the state hopes to revolutionize our transportation - Walla! news

2021-08-07T15:25:05.249Z

The approval of the budget, including the Arrangements Law, entails quite a few lines for anyone who finds himself on the roads, no matter if it is by bus, train or car. Some are seen immediately, others are more of a wish. How will the congestion charge in Gush Dan affect the drivers and will we see an acceleration in the ambitious metro project?

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There is electricity on the road: this is how the state hopes to revolutionize our transportation

The approval of the budget, including the Arrangements Law, entails quite a few lines for anyone who finds himself on the roads, no matter if it is by bus, train or car.

Some are seen immediately, others are more of a wish.

How will the congestion charge in Gush Dan affect the drivers and will we see an acceleration in the ambitious metro project?

From the light rail to the prices of fruits and vegetables: all the reforms approved in the new budget

To the full article

Congestion fees

One of the most prominent sections of the Arrangements Law is the one relating to the congestion charge, which according to the plan is to take effect in 2024 or 2025.

By and large, this is a fee for entering the city centers in a private car in order to reduce the traffic congestion there.

The Tel Aviv metropolitan area will be divided into 3 "rings", with the cost of entering the outer ring standing at NIS 5 and the two inner ones NIS 10 each.

Payment for entry will be between 6:00 and 10:00 and from 15:00 to 19:00 when the fare will be lower in the afternoon.

Acceleration of the metro

The metro project, remember? Three underground lines of the subway, which will serve Gush Dan in a project estimated to cost NIS 150 billion. This is the largest transportation project ever undertaken in Israel and it is advancing in the planning corridors, but in order to push it forward, the Arrangements Law has really been enacted. As part of this, the power of the planning bodies will increase, as well as the powers to remove barriers and transfer powers scattered between different bodies into one arm. The goal: to meet the schedules, the main and first of which is that of the start of work in 2025. When will it start operating? The expectation is to see the start of travel in 2032.

Obstacles and problems along the way:

Even if we ignore the fact that the idea itself is decades old and has never really risen, even if we try to forget the unencouraging way in which the light rail began its journey, there are still question marks over the budgetary sources of this huge project.

These are divided between the state (50 percent), and the rest are divided between improvement levies on properties adjacent to the metro route, the sale of state-owned land adjacent to the route and of course the users of the metro themselves.

Will meet the goal?

Illustration of the Gush Dan metro project (Photo: Walla! NEWS system, illustration)

Regarding the latter point, there is a dispute between the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Finance, while the former seeks to apply the same fares as those of regular public transport.

The Ministry of Finance argues that the improved service should also be reflected in the cost of the ticket, which will be higher.

And since the Treasury is not willing to hear about a deviation from the original budget - this will mean a reduction in the layout and length of the lines from the outer ring of Tel Aviv's satellite cities.

Electric boost

The year 2021 is the year of the breakthrough of electric vehicles in Israel, every month more and more models join that disconnect from the fuel pumps and connect to the electrical outlets. Although these are currently very small numbers and do not cover more than 2.5-3 percent of the total number of vehicles, there is no arguing that these numbers are going to change in the coming years. However, one of the biggest obstacles to this revolution is the issue of charging infrastructure, without which electric cars do not exist.

Until now, any tenant who wanted to install a car charging station in the common area of residential buildings was required to obtain the consent of the other tenants, in a reality where it is difficult to reach an agreement on the division of landscaping costs - it is clear why this issue has become a significant stumbling block. But as part of the change in legislation, the Real Estate Law will be amended so that from the beginning of 2022, each tenant will be able to install a private charging station without the approval of the other tenants.

In addition, within six months the Interior Minister was tasked with enacting regulations that would require every new building to establish infrastructure for charging electric vehicles in parking lots designated to be used by its occupants.

The people behind the movement

Today, the transportation industry suffers from a huge shortage of thousands of bus drivers. The reasons are understandable, the model of operation of public transport by franchisees according to the renewal of operating tenders, makes them a kind of "manpower" companies of drivers. And these complain of a long list of faults and deficiencies in their employment structure, ranging from lack of proper facilities or even services at the endpoints of the lines, phenomena of violence directed towards them, lack of accumulation of seniority and sometimes rights in transition between operator and operator and low wages.

The state's response will be reflected in a program to train about 10,000 bus drivers that will be spread over five years. The bus drivers' division is not the only one in which the field of transportation suffers from a critical shortage - even in the field of heavy vehicles, there has been a chronic shortage of drivers for several years. The results are too few drivers who are on the road too long and more trucks that move and sometimes suffer from accelerated wear and consequently safety deficiencies.

A huge shortage of thousands of bus drivers (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Everyone agrees on the need.

The main point of contention is the budgeting of the issue and items like the salary increases and conditions of the drivers.

From the division of funds between the multiple needs of public transportation (infrastructure, lanes, vehicles) to disputes between ministries that include even the Department of Defense from which the Board of Leaders requires recognizing work as a truck driver as a preferred job.

Move the sector

As far as Arab society in the state budget is concerned, there are a number of good news for one of the most backward populations in the field of transportation.

The Arab localities have been suffering for many years from gaps in the field of infrastructure.

Some are due to defective, or non-existent series and construction that is not according to master plans, some are due to limited budgets that are met by local authorities, driving culture, compliance with the law and enforcement.

The results on the ground are not long in coming in the form of significantly more injuries in road accidents among Israeli Arabs compared to their share of the general population.

Billions of shekels to invest in infrastructure.

Public transport route (Photo: Reuven Castro)

In the field of public transportation, about two billion shekels will be allocated over the next five years for investment in infrastructure and public transportation service for Arab localities.

In this way we hope to improve the safety of the residents as well as allow more and more use of public transportation that will lead to more diverse employment capabilities for the residents.

Among the projects are the first trial of flexible public transportation (similar to Babel-Dan) in Umm al-Fahm, entry into use of the payment app for public transportation also to East Jerusalem and in the more distant future construction of a railway station in Tira as part of the eastern railway route.

Received a red light

Alongside these formidable ventures and the largest public transport investment ever, a number of clauses have not received the significant attention they deserved or been downgraded due to disputes between the Ministries of Finance and Transport.

For example, it became clear that under the Arrangements Law, the Ministry of Finance is interested in reducing the state's support for payments for public transportation. They want to reduce the subsidy that currently stands at 70% to a rate of 50% as well as promote additional moves such as eliminating "accumulated value" on multi-line tickets that allows a discount of up to 25% on the fare. According to them, a similar rate is acceptable in other advanced countries, but this is a claim that ignores two important points. The first is the fact that public transportation and the consideration for payment in Israel are far from those of those advanced countries. The second point is that this harm is mainly in the weaker population groups, those who have no alternative to using public transport.

The reform of the transfer of public transport care to the metropolitan authorities - one of the great hopes for a tangle of centralized management that is not aware of the specific needs of local authorities, has also been torpedoed.

The same metropolitan authorities were supposed to manage the entire public transport complex in their area, from allocating lines, determining travel routes, operating hours to enforcing non-use of a public transport route.

This is an initiative that has been rolling out for decades in the field and this time too it will not be implemented.

The reason, according to the Ministry of Finance, is the opposition of the Ministry of Transport, which in the absence of its mobilization will not be able to complete the establishment of those authorities.

50% reduction in road accident victims?

(Photo: Reuven Castro)

Another section is the National Plan for Reducing Road Accident Victims. This plan, which sets a target of a 50% reduction in road accident victims by 2030, was written at the end of the term of the previous minister, Miri Regev. This is a comprehensive plan, with 15 reference topics that has been prepared - but has not been approved and needless to say that has not been budgeted and certainly cannot be implemented in light of the budget of the National Road Safety Authority and its depleted powers.

The implementation of the program requires billions of shekels, and reference to these is almost absent from the budget.

According to Transport Minister Meirav Michaeli's remarks in the past, the focus will be on the first and central stage on the roads.

When these are rated according to their level of danger and will be treated according to these priorities.

As an example, it is possible to bring Road 90 mainly in sections of the Arava Road that claim victims in fatal accidents.

According to MK Meir Yitzhak Halevi (New Hope), the Minister of Transportation and the Minister of Finance are "mobilized" to budget for upgrading the relevant sections. , Driver training, treatment of urban hazards and targeted enforcement.

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Source: walla

All news articles on 2021-08-07