The traffic updates on KAN’s morning Kalman-Liberman news show (with Kalman Liebskind and Asaf Liberman) monitor the standstills that commuters experience. Journeys that should take 30 minutes often balloon into three-hour horror stories. Highway 6, the country’s longest toll road, has become one of the leading offenders, with daily traffic jams.
The show’s affable presenters are usually able to joke about the situation and make us laugh, but for the people stuck in the middle of a traffic jam, it’s no laughing matter.
The congestion on the roads causes frayed nerves, and the high number of cars in use adds to the pollution levels throughout the country.
Against this backdrop, it would seem only logical and desirable for a concerted effort to be made to encourage commuters to take public transportation and to discourage them from driving their own cars.
So it defies logic that, as part of the 2021-2022 budget that was passed this week by the cabinet, an estimated NIS 250 million in state subsidies for public transportation will be cut.
As The Jerusalem Post’s Zev Stub reported, this would include removing the “accumulated value” bonus for people using Rav Kav cards, which adds extra credit whenever a multi-ride payment is made.
That’s exactly the opposite of what needs to be done in the effort to encourage the use of public transportation and to discourage commuters from getting into their own vehicles.
However, in a sign that the cabinet is not completely out of touch with the transportation crisis Israelis face every day, another element of the budget includes a tax on cars that will enter the greater Tel Aviv area.
The congestion charge, which will only come into effect in 2024, is officially called the public transport fee, and is expected to raise NIS 2.7 billion to be used to help fund a five-year plan for Tel Aviv’s urgently needed public transportation development.
“Due to the worsening transport crisis, and in particular in Gush Dan, and in order to reduce traffic congestion, from 2024 a charge will be introduced for entering Gush Dan during rush hours. The plan will set, for those choosing to travel in a private car in rush hours and areas of congestion, a more appropriate price that takes into account the external costs, including loss of time, air pollution and accidents,” the Finance Ministry said.
Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli originally opposed the idea, but according to Stub, has agreed that it’s a quick short-term solution to Tel Aviv’s traffic problems, and a source of funding for other transportation projects.
Michaeli is also one of the engines behind a new NIS 650m. electric public transportation system.
It includes NIS 360m. for municipal and intercity electric buses and the infrastructure they require, NIS 100m. to reduce pollution in cities, NIS 90m. to establish an environmentally friendly commuting program for workers and NIS 100m. for electric charging stations and research and development in the field of clean transportation.
“The climate crisis is already hitting the world hard, and Israel must act immediately to reduce its consequences,” ministers said in a joint statement.
“The best way to do this is through cooperation between government ministries. The transportation industry is the biggest polluting factor in the country, and therefore the decision to promote electric transportation is extremely important,” wrote Michaeli and her partners in the plan, Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg and Energy Minister Karin Elharrar.
That is the type of forward thinking we need if Israel is ever going to get out of the parking lot. But it needs to be combined with consideration for the present. More people need to use public transportation now, and increasing its cost will only be an obstacle to achieving that goal.
Only a concerted, combined effort to give people incentives to use public transportation and to discourage them from using private vehicles will solve the critical problem we are facing on the nation’s roads.