Tuesday, September 24, 2013

City buses on Saturdays? Maybe the *mashiach* is on her way!



While I applaud the initiative to have intracity buses run on Saturdays, I’d tweak the plan:

  1. First of all, why specify keeping buses out of Orthodox neighborhoods? No one wants buses roaring down their street in their day off. Why mention the Orthodox at all? Simply operate routes that don’t run through residential areas. Israel’s cities are fortunately walkable enough for it not to be a major hardship to get from one’s home to the nearest thoroughfare by foot. Running two buses per hour on certain thoroughfares should do it.
  2. I’m all for 7/365 public transportation, but what about inter-city travel? Inter-city buses and trains bother no one. Even bi-hourly trains between cities would be a huge improvement. The day I can exit the Saturday ghetto we call Jerusalem will be the triumph of my life.