City Allies Grossly Inflate Their Numbers by "Stuffing the Ballot Boxes"

On Friday, April 22, 2011, we checked our computers and the following screen presented itself to us, reflecting an on-line opinion poll set up by our community center to assess the attitude of the French Hill, Tsameret Habirah, Giv'at HaMivtar and Ramat Eshkhol communities toward the Project to introduce bike lanes in their neighborhoods. The poll gives four options, with two of primary interest. 816 votes were counted. In favor of the Bike Lane Project just as it is drew 24% of the vote. Totally against the project at all was 70% of the vote.

After two hours had transpired, we checked our computers once more and found that the number of votes had more than doubled in the interim. Nearly all the added votes were cast in favor of the project, increasing the percentage of the tally of the votes in this category from 24% to 45%. A much smaller number were added to the classification that allowed for the bike lanes with minor changes, tallying 20% of the vote instead of 5%. No votes appear to have been added to the tally against the project, decreasing the percentage in that category from 70% to 24%.

The addition of 840 votes to the poll in two hours or less is very suspicious. This only goes to show us that any information derived from the team connected with the Project is not to be considered as trustworthy.

In this case, the community center has not built a polling mechanism that is invulnerable to doctoring and ballot-box stuffing from outsiders. It is reprehensible for the same center to leave this polling page up as though it still provides a proper representation of valid individual votes.

Furthermore, the fact that the city representatives Kobi Bartov and Naomi Tsur should openly utilize this anonymous poll as a valid source for evaluating our community's support for the project (over against the carefully documented petition of nearly 1000 signers with addresses and phone numbers) is laughable and, in fact, potentially criminal.

From our own petition presented at shopping centers and door to door (from Mt. Scopus, French Hill, Tsameret Habira, Giv'at Hamivtar and Ramat Eshkol), among young and old alike, including bicylclists, and residents from varied social, religious and ethnic backgrounds, taxi drivers and bus drivers at least 75% of those asked oppose the proposed project and those that accept it as is are less than 5%.

In light of these manipulations of the assessment of public opinion, with the knowledge of the local community center and the city representatives, there is no way to establish faith in these entities unless they allow us to to speak out fairly and democratically.

We would like to challenge these same city representatives by proposing that they allow a referendum to be executed, where the residents of our communities can say what they really think about the project through casting votes in a carefully monitored setting.

"Narrower lanes make driving safer" - Minor injury accident due to bike lanes

Today at around 4:45 PM, an accident took place between two cars on Etzel Street in French Hill. In one of the cars were two senior women who are long-term residents of the neighborhood. Following inquiries with the drivers and examination of the scene, it is apparent that the accident was due primarily to the hazardously narrow width of the street that is the result of the two bike lanes recently paved on both sides. The cars did not have enough room for maneuverability in order to avoid collision. A wheel of one of the cars even ended up on the curb of one of the bike lanes during the accident.

All of this comes one day after neighborhood residents presented these very same problems on the very street of the accident to the municipal representatives in charge of the bike lane project during an on-site visit. The municipal representatives dismissed the concerns of the residents, claiming that the narrow roads actually make driving safer (it is possible to read a summary of the meeting here). How many more residents need to be hurt until there is a change? Already today one of the drivers was injured!

Two blown-out tires and a damaged body

The narrowness of the street forced the driver onto the curb of the bike lane during the accident. There was not enough room to avoid collision!

The relative state of the cars after the accident

Destroyed front left end and blown out tire

The air bag helps indicate the severity of the accident

"Mr. Barkat ... We demand immediate action, before a major, tragic accident takes place for which the city itself will be held responsible, in particular the city engineer (minor accidents have already taken place due to the changes)!!!" See here for more

Help fix the Community Center's bike lane survey!

Readers are encouraged to visit the French Hill, Givat HaMivtar, Tsameret Habira and Ramat Eshkol Community Center website and vote in the poll regarding public opinion of the bike lane project in the area. The poll is located near the lower left of the page.

This is particularly relevant due to the fact that in the short period of time prior to yesterday's meeting between the Municipality representatives and French Hill residents, the poll went, nearly overnight, from a very strong majority that was very critical of the project, to dramatic and highly suspicious overwhelming support for the project. This is especially suspicious as in the meeting, the head of the project from the Municipality, Kobi Bartov, proudly touted the positive opinion of the poll (it should be remembered that it had only until recently been quite negative). One resident at the meeting critically responded stating that the poll is anonymous, which allows people to vote as many times as they want provided they know how to bypass its very weak duplicate voting safeguard (it is possible to read a summary of the meeting here).

In light of these events, people are encouraged to vote according to their good conscience in order to offset the current dubious statistics.

Meeting with Municipal Representatives - No Progress Forward

Today a meeting took place between representatives of the Municipality and residents of the French Hill area along the streets in which the bike lane project has been and, unfortunately, will continue to be implemented. According to residents in attendance, the meeting was a complete failure and merely served a bureaucratic formality of fulfilling a "community participation" requirement.

The meeting had been poorly publicized to the French Hill community and included dire warnings that only one person per neighborhood was to attend. The result was that the French Hill residents made up only about 50% of the participants at this meeting that was meant to serve their needs. The other half was made up of the municipal managers of the bike lane project, led by Naomi Tsur and Kobi Bartov, and special interest groups that were invited to come along and influence the discussion, most notably members of the Israel bicyclist association. When a resident asked why they were there when the meeting had been publicized as a debate between French Hill residents and the Municipality, the bicycle association representatives asserted that as Jerusalem bicyclists they have a right to determine what happens in French Hill and that those that oppose their current designs for the area are a selfish minority forcing their will on others.

In response to the narrow traffic lanes, the municipal workers replied that people would simply have to learn and adapt. They claimed that French Hill motorists have had it easy up until now and will have to change the way the behave on a daily basis, as will people exiting their parked cars on the street. They spoke of enforcing a "cultural change" on the community and making them adopt new driving and walking habits.

They did not want to deal with the issue of drivers from outside of French Hill who would not have the opportunity to "adapt" to these changes, nor did they wish to deal fully with the issue of the elderly pedestrians for whom crossing the street has become far more difficult and dangerous since the changes have been implemented.

It also seems that local bicyclists will have to undergo special training to use the lanes at various centers that will supposedly be created for this purpose. Bicycles in the eyes of the municipality are a form of vehicle that requires the consent of the authorities to utilize. Gone are the days of childhood joy-rides.

The municipal representatives consistently hid behind their so called "adherence" to the Ministry of Transportation directives for the construction of bike lanes. In regards to the very real and very evident dangers in the street produced by the project that were witnessed during the trip, they quite literally replied that as far as they were concerned, if the plans meet the criteria of the ministry, then they are safe regardless of what the real life situation may look like.

The municipal representatives also made a small number of vain and dubious promises in an attempt to pacify residents and prevent further discussion of particularly problematic issues. One such issue was the fact that the bike lane trenches fill quite frequently with leaves, dirt and trash, making them extremely hazardous for use. They promised they would have the lanes cleaned on a regular basis. However, given the poor quality of the construction as well as the opinion of experts, they clearly do not have the budget to uphold such a commitment. Another issue was that they would meet the needs of handicapped residents by creating a raised area across the bike lane canal at each parking place of these residents. This clearly does not take into account residents moving in and out of the neighborhood, and it is very doubtful that they will create such a raised passage for each new disabled resident of the French Hill area, not to mention the fact that it will transform the ill-concieved bike lanes into a confusing route with a seemingly endless amount of ramps going up and down.

All-in-all, residents are very disappointed with the treatment they received today. They do not feel that they had real partners in dialogue. They do feel that their very serious safety concerns are being brushed aside. While a variety of serious safety issues were raised that would normally require a complete rethinking of the project, the municipal representatives and special interest groups allowed for these issues presented by the residents to be listened to one-by-one, isolated from each other, and subsequently dismissed one-by-one. There seems to be no real intent on the part of the city to deal with the overall problems that plague this project, but rather a desire to implement it as soon as possible regardless of the consequences to the local residents.

Haaretz Newspaper: J'lem bike path proves danger to bikers, pedestrians

The Haaretz Newspaper published today a report on the bike lanes in North Jerusalem:

"The Jerusalem municipality has created bicycle paths through the French Hill and Givat Hamivtar neighborhoods, but the paths' design is a nightmare for cyclists, motorists and pedestrians alike..." For the rest of the electronic version click here

For the Hebrew version, click here.

Petition: Cessation of the French Hill and Ramat Eshkol Bike Lanes

Last Thursday evening and Friday, volunteers from the French Hill community collected signatures for a petition against the bike lane project. This is its content:

To Mr. Nir Barkat, Mayor of Jerusalem

Since our repeated attempts to engage in discussion have been met with a forceful and disrespectful attitude on the part of the Municipality in general, and the Division of Transportation, in particular, we are forced to turn to you with this petition:

We the residents of French Hill and Ramat Eshkol oppose the bike lane project in our neighborhood in its current form (although some of us do support the general concept of a bike lane). The manner of planning and implementation of the project, as well as the choice of route for paths, has hurt us in two primary forms:

• Extreme safety concerns for all travelers along the streets and sidewalks – drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists alike.

• Severe accessibility problems especially for parents with strollers, children, the elderly, the blind and handicapped.

We demand: [1] Immediate cessation of all work; [2] A complete re-planning of the bike lane and the route it takes, which will include comprehensive community involvement; [3] General repairs to all damages and obstacles, and the implementation of the new, community-approved plan.

We demand immediate action, before a major, tragic accident takes place for which the city itself will be held responsible, in particular the city engineer (minor accidents have already taken place due to the changes)!!!

What can we do?

A new page has been added with advice on how to move forward against the bike lane project and the dangers it presents... click here