Hebrew University Bike Lanes: Not According to the Ministry of Transportation's Guidelines

After the city planners have embarked on an ill-conceived project without clearing it with those who are heavily affected by it . . .

After 3 month's of protests from the residents of north Jerusalem . . .

After revelations that the city planners have sidestepped various guidelines published by the Ministry of Transportation itself . . .

The municipality has proceeded to continue its plan by building the bike lanes up Sederot Churchill, the main street to the Hebrew University, again disregarding various guidelines published by the Ministry of Transportation itself!

And, as demonstrated in Givat HaMivtar and French Hill, they continue to ignore the most basic, universal guideline that the results of construction must be safe (which they are not - see last post for more information).

Here are the dangers the current construction poses:

• The minimum allowable combined width of traffic, bicycle, parking and pedestrian lanes for various grades of slope (even under the safest conditions) has been ignored.
• The present bike paths merge with walkways at bus stops and with roadways at intersections.
• Cars cannot open their doors without being hit by passing traffic.
• Passengers cannot exit from parked cars without a potential collision with the traffic on one side and with bicyclists on the other.
• The handicapped, elderly and parents with strollers are forced to navigate around an additional raised barrier and bicycle traffic, before they are safe on a sidewalk.
• Bicyclists are being forced to ride on steep streets, confined to a highly curbed trough (narrower than the Ministry of Transportation allows). Each high curb presents a detriment to the safety of the bicyclist whose peddles and wheels coming in contact with either curb will cause the rider to flip from his bicycle (especially when other obstacles appear in the lane or in slippery and windy conditions).

Do the city planners represent their own interests or do they represent all of us?

From Tuesday to the end of Friday, the work area was dramatically expanded down the hill.

On Sunday the problematic bike lane dividers had already been partially installed. 

Bus is forced to stop because of open door of parked car along projected bike path curb.
Drivers exiting their cars and passing vehicles can expect dangerous collisions thanks to the bike path project.

The bike path project leaves no room for human error.

The bike path project does not adhere to the Ministry of Transportation's guidelines

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

Construction proceeds on road to the Hebrew University

The municipality has of late turned their bike path construction efforts to Churchill Boulevard, the main street leading up to the Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus. The design and methods are the same as those already seen in the North Jerusalem neighborhoods of French Hill, Givat Hamivtar, Tsameret Habira and Ramat Eshkol. Here too, the street has been reduced to an unreasonably narrow width that allows little to no room for human error and is prone to congestion. This on a street utilized by ambulances rushing to the Hospital with patients in critical condition and buses packed with students going to the University (it should be noted that a major bus terminal with a very high amount of traffic is located at the University). It likewise appears that numerous parking spaces, necessary for visitors to the Hospital and the local student population, will be arbitrarily reduced to provide space for the bike paths, in the same way as has already been done or is planned for elsewhere in the neighborhoods.

While the construction has not progressed far enough to reach the actual creation of the bike paths themselves, given the repetition of the same design flaws already seen in the road work, it is reasonable to assume that the Hebrew University bike paths will be afflicted with the same faults as those already constructed in the nearby residential areas. It is also highly likely that the same bus stop design implemented in the North Jerusalem neighborhoods through the course of the project, where a bus is forced to stop in the middle of the road blocking all the traffic behind it, will likewise be implemented here on this important artery of the city.

This relocation of efforts, seems to be in response to the overwhelming resistance the municipality has encountered amongst the residents of French Hill, Givat Hamivtar, Tsameret Habira and Ramat Eshkol towards the bike path construction work that has already been carried out in those neighborhoods. Presumably, the contractors have been given a section of road to work on from some of the more advanced and later stages of the plans while the municipal representatives try to pacify the adversaries of the project on an individual localized level. Once the resignation of the residents has been achieved, the path near the University can be extended back to sections already completed in North Jerusalem neighborhoods and expansion can once again commence there.

A partially completed section of the bike path sidewalk extension.

A portion of the street fenced off and under preparation for transformation into a bike lane.

The incisions show the degree to which the bicycle path will narrow the road.

These incisions line up with partially constructed bike path extensions.

The road will become so narrow due to the bike path, that buses will barely be able to travel along the street, just as was done on Sheshet HaYamim street

Bike "Canals" in North Jerusalem

A few days ago Jerusalem experienced a light Spring rain. Afterwards, people traveling along HaHagana Street in the French Hill neighborhood noticed an interesting thing, the bike paths, with their canal-like structure, have certain drainage issues. After a light rain, numerous puddles formed ranging in size from modest, to very large (see pictures).

For a bicyclist, any puddle can be a danger. Mud can make the wheels of the bicycle slippery and cause dangerous accidents. The high-walled structure of these paths insure that dirt and dust will collect inside. With the recent rainfall it is also clear that there is inadequate drainage and that puddles will certainly form. The resulting combination will be a hazardous muddy path that will inevitably add even more injuries to those already caused by this ill-designed bike path project.

Bike Lane Survey Bites the Dust

At the beginning of this week, the French Hill/Tsameret HaBirah/Givat HaMivtar/Ramat Eshkol Community Center finally removed the "bike lane survey" from its website. This survey had clearly been manipulated through "ballot stuffing" on April 22nd, when, within the space of two hours, the number of votes more than doubled in favor of the bike lane project. It is worth noting that over the course of the following two weeks, only 15 votes were registered!

This anonymous survey did not have adequate control features to insure one vote per person. Thus its results were not reliable. This was pointed out to the City Officials who nonetheless insisted on referring to it as support for the bike lane project, while disregarding the approximately 1,000-strong, signed petition of named individuals who expressed their opposition to the bike lane project. It took the Community Center three weeks to remove the survey...better late than never!

 On the 22nd of April within two hours the survey doubled itself by more than 800 votes in favor of the bike lane project. Since then, the survey has increased by a mere 15 votes (see photo above and compare to this post). Clearly it is not reasonable to believe that 800 individuals spontaneously decided to vote all at the same time on the 22nd of April, but rather that something far more deceptive was afoot...

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