Anyone who ever had to take a bus in Tel Aviv knows how frustrating it can be. Different lines operate in different hours, and you have to learn in advance the line’s route and which lines are available for you from where. There is no apparent master plan; routes curl, curve, and even turn backwards(!) as they progress through the city. Some suburban neighborhoods, such as Sheekun Lamed, are almost completely cut off from public transportation.
The dominating bus company within the Tel Aviv metropolis is the Dan Cooperative.
Current bus routes in central Tel Aviv
Well, the city has been trying to persuade Dan to revamp its route architecture, and to create a crisscross pattern of bus routes — such as the ones that operate in New York and Los Angeles, and in many other major cities around the world. But Dan, which is being partly subsidised by the government, doesn’t want to lose any money over this possible revamping.
To the rescue comes Deputy Mayor Peer Visner, representative of the Green Party, who proposes having the city sponsor about 10 bus lines that would run in north-south or west-east routes, and that would offer their services for free. Such a move would likely put much pressure on Dan and force it to reconsider its resistance to this much-needed change.
Only future will tell whether the plan actually materializes in the near future or remains to be another one of these electoral promises that are being thrown around in an election year.
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