Israel's Ministry of Transport talks about big plans but in terms of implementation the picture is grim. Even after the ministry tampered with the targets for 2024, it still failed to meet them. The length of public transport lanes hardly increased, the number of deaths in road accidents has reached a peak not seen for 20 years, and even the giant projects are being delayed. This means that despite the ambitious plans and budgets allocated, the ministry is having difficulty realizing its core functions in improving public transport and maintaining safety on the roads.
Lanes remain on paper
Every year, the government publishes its annual work plan. The targets for 2023 included increasing the length of the country's public transport lanes from 456 kilometers to 550 kilometers. However, in reality, the length of public transport lanes at the end of that year was 476 kilometers, an increase of only 20 kilometers. The Ministry of Transport's explanation that the war slowed down the pace of project implementation is also flimsy, since it broke out less than three months before the end of the year.
A significant portion of these priority lanes are being implemented by the Ministry of Transport on intercity roads, and it also includes lanes where cars with one or more additional passengers are permitted to travel (plus or carpool lanes). The plan also includes activities of local authorities through agreements with the ministry. For example, in Tel Aviv alone, which has an independent policy on the subject, there are 73 kilometers of public transport lanes.
There is a genuine difficulty in promoting public transport lanes due to political opposition by local authorities, mainly because they are often at the expense of existing lanes for cars or parking places. Consistently and under all ministers, the Ministry of Transport does not pressure the authorities to promote bus lanes, but rather prefers a policy of incentives.
Despite their importance and the difficulty in promoting them, and following the weak results of 2023, bus lanes were airbrushed out of the government work plan for 2024 and did not appear as an aim at all. In response to an inquiry from "Globes," the ministry said only nine bus lanes extending over 12 kilometers were paved last year, far from the target set by the ministry three years ago.
There is no doubt that the war has slowed down the pace of project implementation, and the local elections that were postponed to February 2024 also caused a freeze in promotion due to mayors who were concerned not court controversy before the elections. But these are not all the explanations. The declared policy of Transport Minister Miri Regev is incoherent. On the one hand, she publicly supports the paving of public transport lanes, and on the other hand, she has demanded cancellation of some of them and their transformation into a carpool lane. She has also sought to reduce enforcement, and reduced the requirements for traveling in cars on the lane on Road 1 from two extra passengers to just one. Industry sources claim that the professional level has no support in talks with mayors.
The previous target was set during the previous government under Merav Michaeli, but transportation policy, because it requires long-term planning, also requires consistency. Removing the target indicates that the Ministry of Transport does not measure itself by its core activity. Those targets were also supported in the budgets, when in the 2021 budget it was decided to finance a five-year plan for paving public transport lanes at a cost of NIS 5.4 billion. However, years later, it is clear that a large part of the money earmarked for improving public transport will remain in the state coffers and not be used in practice.
The ministry failed to meet its targets
The government target for 2023 also included reducing the number of fatalities in road accidents from 5.1 fatalities per billion kilometers traveled to 4.9. In fact, according to data provided by the National Council for Road Safety to "Globes," in 2023 there were 5.5 fatalities per billion kilometers traveled.
After failing to meet the target, in preparing the plan for 2024, the Ministry of Transport changed the criteria and examined the number of fatalities in relation to the population. It was explained at the time that "the safety picture may be distorted in a situation where people switch from private to public transport - the number of people traveling decreases and the ratio of fatalities to people traveling artificially increases," while according to the index that compares fatalities to the population, the expected decrease is 5% each year.
In 2023, the fatality rate per population was 3.67 deaths per 100,000 people, and the target for 2024 was 3.48. In fact, it jumped to 4.4. No wonder, since Israel does not have a budgeted national road safety plan, and it has not been included in the 2025 budget either. Thus, the Ministry of Transport failed in two core goals: public transport and road safety. The major projects currently being promoted have also encountered delays. The completion dates for the fourth railway track alongside the Ayalon highway in Tel Aviv and the railway electrification project have been postponed, as has the completion of the Tel Aviv light rail Green and Purple Lines.
The Ministry of Transport promises that in 2025 20 bus lanes will be paved and work will begin on the construction of BRT lines in the Greater Tel Aviv area - the blue line between Rehovot and Rishon LeZion and the brown line between Rishon LeZion and Ramle and Lod.
Along with the failures in meeting targets, there has been some progress in the past year in the area of structural changes in the sector. The state budget proposes that the Ministries of Finance and Transport establish metropolitan authorities to manage transport in accordance with recommendations and decisions that have been on paper for 20 years, but the composition of the authorities also arouses criticism. In addition, the ministries are promoting a move to regulate the bus and port sectors, which was agreed upon and has still delayed. A dramatic and secret agreement between the ministries to remove Regev's opposition to congestion charges in exchange for a train to Kiryat Shmona is also on the agenda.
The Ministry of Transport said, "This year, about 90 kilometers of lanes are planned on more than 20 lanes throughout the country. Minister Regev has expressed her position in favor of public transport lanes, provided that they fulfill their purpose. The minister passed a government resolution to establish a ministerial committee to combat road accidents.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 8, 2025.
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