Paving new bus lanes slows to a crawl

Bus lane on coastal highway credit: Shlomi Yosef
Bus lane on coastal highway credit: Shlomi Yosef

Over the past two years the Transport Ministry has fallen far short in meeting targets for new bus lanes and reducing road accident deaths.

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.

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.

Bus lane on coastal highway credit: Shlomi Yosef
Bus lane on coastal highway credit: Shlomi Yosef
Tel Aviv Stock Exchange credit: Shutterstock MagioreStock Foreign investment on TASE hits five-year high

Foreign investors have been flocking to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in recent weeks, the TASE research department tells "Globes."

Elbit Systems tank turret systems credit: Elbit Systems Elbit Systems wins $100m tank turret systems deal

The Israel defense electronics company will supply its advanced UT30 MK2 unmanned turret systems to General Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS) to be supplied to a NATO European country.

Tomer Weingarten Photo: PR Trump targets SentinelOne exec in act of revenge

The US administration has suspended the security clearance of the company's chef intelligence and public policy officer Chris Krebs and everyone associated with him.

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange share prices rising credit: Tali Bogdanovsky TASE opens sharply higher after Trump U-turn on tariffs

The pause is being interpreted as a climb down after US President Donald Trump admitted he had made the move to calm the markets.

Ashot Ashkelon credit: Ministry of Defense Up 250%, Ashot Ashkelon wins another Defense Ministry order

The Israeli defense company's share price has risen 250% in the past three years since FIMI Opportunity Funds acquired control.

Liad Agmon credit: Eyal Izhar Insight Partners Liad Agmon steps down as managing partner

Serial entrepreneur Agmon has served as a partner at Insight Partners Israel alongside Daniel Aronovitz who set up the Israel office.

Shekels credit: Shutterstock Vladerina32 Shekel slide resumes amid escalating tariff war

The Bank of Israel is not expected to intervene in the forex market despite the sharp depreciation of the shekel.

Nir Zuk credit: Inbal Marmari Palo Alto Networks mulls buying AI security co for $700m

Sources inform "Globes" that on Palo Alto's radar is Protect AI.

President Donald Trump hosts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu credit: Reuters Kevin Mohatt Israeli officials confident on US tariff concessions

Senior Israeli figures believe that concessions could be tied to progress on strategic regional political issues that are important to President Trump.

Phoenix Investment House CEO Avner Hadad  credit: Tommy Harpaz "The market has priced in all the bad things"

Phoenix Investment House CEO Avner Hadad says US markets could continue to fall, but that we are close to interesting territory for patient investors.

Tel Aviv credit: Shutterstock Tel Aviv slips in World's Wealthiest Cities ranking

Tel Aviv's position as one of the world's wealthiest cities took a big knock over the past year as it slipped from 42nd to 48th in investment advisors Henley & Co.'s "World's Wealthiest Cities" Top 50 ranking.

Leviathan platform  credit: Albatross C'ttee seen recommending no cut in gas exports

The Dayan committee on the future of the gas sector estimates that Israel's natural gas reserves will run out in 2045.

Accountant General Yali Rothenberg credit: Rafi Kutz Israel's fiscal deficit continues to narrow

The deficit narrowed in the twelve months to the end of March 2025, for the sixth consecutive month, Ministry of Finance accountant general Yali Rothenberg reported today.

Arkia credit: Arkia Arkia cuts Tel Aviv - New York April fares

Arkia has cut fares at the last minute, a time when prices usually soar even higher, according to the pricing method used in the industry.

Bank of Israel Governor Prof. Amir Yaron credit: Dani Shem Tov Knesset Spokesperson BoI Governor: US tariffs could push up inflation in Israel

Prof. Amir Yaron tells "Globes" that there is a risk that the new tariffs will cause inflation to rise in the US, with a knock-on effect for Israel.

US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu April 7, 2025  credit: Avi Ohayon, Government Press Office Netanyahu fails to persuade Trump to remove tariff on Israel

Asked by reporters whether Israel would be exempted from his tariffs policy, US President Donald Trump replied, "Maybe not. Don’t forget we help Israel a lot."

Twitter Facebook Linkedin RSS Newsletters גלובס Israel Business Conference 2018