A study conducted by the Amuta (Non-profit organization) "North Jerusalem Residents for Safety and Quality of Life" shows, that contrary to what has been stated by municipal representatives, the bike path project in the area does not in fact adhere to the Ministry of Transportation's set of guidelines for planning streets, bike paths and sidewalks in cities (the guidelines themselves can be found here). You can read part of the study below:
Minimal widths
A major problem with the bike lane project is that it has been designed along the minimum measurements possible, especially with regard to the width of roads and even the bike paths themselves. The Guidelines specifically discourage planners from utilizing the minimal measurements as a standard throughout the project, but rather recommend a more “balanced” system ( 'הנחיות לתכנון תנועת אופניים' henceforth 'Bikes': 73; 'הנחיות לתכנון רחובות בערים – מרחב הרחוב' henceforth 'Streets': 31). The reason for this is obvious. These measurements are the minimum at which bike and vehicle traffic are considered to be safe. The plan allows for no margin of error, a state which no human is capable of handling on a consistent basis. Furthermore, the safety of the recommendations in the Guidelines themselves is questionable and thus any plan that makes exceptions that are less than the minimum recommendations cannot in good conscience be declared safe.
The Guidelines encourage planners to always choose safety over capacity (Streets: 30). The flexibility in the Guidelines is meant to be utilized to make a “balanced” plan which is at the same time both safe and efficient, putting the individual and his/her welfare at the center (Bikes: 28; Streets: 24, 26). Insisting on narrowing the streets to a dangerous width in order to allow for the addition of bicycle lanes is choosing capacity over safety and efficiency. The creation of such danger is in direct conflict with the spirit of the Guidelines and is in conflict with the welfare and quality of life of those who must navigate these streets, often resulting in injury accidents such as the one mentioned above. You cannot increase safety by increasing risk.
The Guidelines state that bicycle paths should always be built in order to accommodate the fastest a bicycle is likely to go. This is considered to be 50 km/h as the result of downhill slopes which Jerusalem has in abundance (Bikes: 47). According to the Guidelines, if predictive data as to the amount of traffic that will pass through on a level section of road is unavailable, the minimal width for a one-way bike path is 2 meters (Bikes: 73). This measurement has clearly not been applied to the bike paths throughout the area. However, even if predictive data is available that sets the recommended width for level bike paths at 1.5 m with a minimum of 1.2 m, the same cannot be said for downward slopes.
The Guidelines dictate that bicycle paths that have a gradation of more than 5% but less than 11% need to be widened by 0.5 meters or even 1.2 meters if the length of the sloped section exceeds specific standards (Bikes: 48 and 73). Jerusalem is a city with a very large number of slopes due to its mountainous nature. And yet the bike lanes going through this area's sloped roads have not been widened to the 2 or 2.7 meter width as directed in the Guidelines, but rather have been made narrower to the minimal 1.2 m width used for lanes on level terrain (Bikes: 68; Streets: 115). Examples of this are on Sheshet Hayamim St. and Lehi St. Whether or not special exceptions were given to achieve this, the bike path project has been largely built on exceptions to rules that were questionable to begin with and cannot be considered to actually be safe by any standard.
Options to deal with these width-related problems do exist but have been largely ignored. The Guidelines say that it is permissible to take away some of the width of the sidewalk in order to make a bicycle path, provided that it will not prove to be a serious impediment to the pedestrians (Bikes: 76). The sidewalks in French Hill are, for the most part, quite broad and some of their excess width could be used for the bike paths instead of forcing cars to drive in such close proximity to each other and bicyclists to ride down such narrow paths. Likewise, a single two-way bike path takes less space than two one-way bike paths (see comparative measurements in Bikes: 73). However, these alternatives do not seem to have received any serious consideration by the Municipality.
On a related note, the Guidelines state that bus stops are special areas of the street that require their own operational area (Streets: 54). However, incredibly, the project has filled in the pre-existing bus stop bays so that busses are now forced to stop in the middle of the driving lane, blocking all the traffic behind them. This clearly stands against the guiding principle of making the streets efficient.
North Jerusalem Resident for Safety and Quality of Life
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