Introduction

Over the course of the past few months a company by the name of Moriah has been paving bike lanes in the French Hill and Ramat Eshkol neighborhoods on behalf of the Jerusalem municipality. The official intent of the project is to create an alternative transportation lane from the metro station planned to open in North Jerusalem to the Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus.

Initially it seems like a nice idea, after all who could object to bike riding? However, last Sunday a meeting took place between representatives of the municipality and residents of the area at the French Hill community center (the invitation for which can be seen above). At this meeting the French Hill and Ramat Eshkol communities brought forth their strong and unified voice against the project as it's been implemented until now and as it is intended to be implemented. There was barely a single resident that supported it. Instead there was a series of well thought out and factual arguments directed at fundamental problems in the plan along side outbursts of anger and rage on the manner in which the project was forced upon the neighborhoods.

But what problems could be so fundamental so as to create such strong resistance amongst the residents of the area?

A. Safety – While initially the concept of a bike lane would seem to increase the safety of the bicyclists, pedestrians and motorists, due to the manner in which the project was planned and implemented, the exact opposite has happened. The bike lanes weave in and out of streets and sidewalks in a manner that is confusing and dangerous for the cyclists. In order to pave these bike paths space was taken from the roads narrowing the lanes of traffic in such a manner that two vehicles can barely pass each other without an accident. In addition to all of this, pedestrians will now have to look out for and navigate through four lanes of traffic simply to cross the street.

B. The nature of determination and execution of the project – The entire planning and implementation of the project was done in an entirely undemocratic manner without any census amongst the residents of the area. Only after entire sections of the project were completed was there and official meeting between representatives of the municipality and the residents at the community center. They did not even conduct a study amongst the local bicyclists if such a plan was desirable to them.

C. Faulty reasoning at the basis of the project – There is a very low probability that the plan will achieve its goal at all. People bicycling back and forth to the University and metro will either need to fill the train's cars with their bikes or leave them at the station. The latter option means that they are expected to buy a bicycle, a very expensive item in this country, exclusively for riding back and forth between the station and the University. At the same time, it is very naïve to think that the residence of the neighborhoods will suddenly decide to rush out and buy bicycles simply to make use of the new paths that until now have received a very bad reputation within the community.