Public transportation in Israel is in a perpetual state of change with ambitious plans for improved public transportation within all the main cities in Israel. Currently, Israel’s roads are becoming over-run by private cars. The amount of cars on the road has doubled from 1 million in 1990 to 2 million today while population increase was about 50%. Since 2000, every year 45,000 vehicles were added to the roads of Israel. With this significant increase, traffic has risen and air-quality in the cities has decreased. It is time that Israelis leave their cars and embrace public transit.

In Tel Aviv, the event held at the Cinematheque included Green Course members dressed up as Minister of Transportation, Yisrael Katz, and Mayor, Ron Huldai, with each one seemingly blaming the other for responsibility to enforce the bus lanes.  In the current state of affairs there too few public transport lanes are operative and enforced. Opening further lanes to public transport will improve the transportation system as a whole. Everyone entering the conference saw our signs and heard our message while inside the Cinematheque.

In Jerusalem, where the transport infrastructure has been in dire state for years, a protest was held with a display showing students waiting at the bus station for so long that they start to age and, finally, become skeletons. The goal was to get students to realize they can demand better service. Once they realize the unfairness the aggressive push to increase service will begin.

In Rehovot, where the municipality recently was awarded a 1,000,000 NIS budget for reorganizing the city transport system and nothing in this regard seems to be happening, Green Course student volunteers marched down the main street from the Weizmann Institute of Science to City Hall. They walked with signs and protested congested traffic. Of the people that were spoken to, many said that they would look further into the issue when voting for mayor. “Countless people are now more educated about the issues of public transportation,” said Green Course chapter director at Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Tamir Klein. He added, “People don’t feel that they deserve quality public transportation. Our goal is to open their eyes. This realization will give people a voice to demand better public transportation.”

Green Course is behind the authorities at every step of the way pushing for these changes and pushing for them to happen soon.

The current transportation policy favors private cars over public transportation. MK Pines Paz, who attended the event, noted that the public expects that the Mayor and Minister of Transportation will advance efficient public transportation. MK Dov Henin, who also attended, remarked that it not possible that Tel Aviv will wait another 30 years for appropriate public transportation. “The time has come that Tel Aviv align itself with the transportation ideas that have proven themselves in similar cities in the world,” say Henin.

Yael Sril Mohliver, Green Course campaigner for public transport, “The large number of people who turned out today highlights that the public expects appropriate public transportation. The 9% raise in public transportation costs, as part of the national budget, proves that the decision makers are disconnected from the public and forget that public transportation is a basic right…”

Green Course is demanding:
* Planning and budgeting priority be given to public transportation at the cost of reducing the infrastructure for private vehicles.
* Immediate and significant improvement in public transportation in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area
* Implementation of the bus line reorganization plan for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area
* Creation of a metropolitan authority for transportation in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area
* Planning and enforcement of public transportation lanes
* Establishment of bike lanes which are contiguous
* Freezing of plans for additional parking lots and interchanges in Tel Aviv