Let your voice be heard by phone call to the Jerusalem Municipality on Thursday, July 14th!

"North Jerusalem Residents for Safety and Quality of Life (registered amuta)" informs:

On Thursday, July 14^th, from 16:00 – 19:00, the Municipality invites residents to contact senior officials in the city government, including the General Manager and City Engineer, by direct phone call. Dial the Municipality's hotline 106. (For more details see: http://www.jerusalem.muni.il/jer_main/defaultnew.asp?lng=1)

This is your opportunity to lodge your complaint about the dangers inherent in municipality's ill-concieved bike path project. Here are some important points to remember:

• The Municipality has disregarded the will of the residents, the opinion of experts and even the objections of organizations such as Hadassah Hospital and the Hebrew University. Last week the Municipality unequivocally came to the decision to continue the project in its current form with minimal and negligible changes to the original plans, despite the outcry of the parties mentioned above.
• This project is being carried out in a substandard manner and not in accordance with the guidelines of the Ministry of Transportation.
• This project cannot be considered a “Traffic Arrangement” as the Municipality claims, since it does not solve a specific local traffic problem. Rather, it is actually a pilot program for a city-wide change in transportation.
• This project does not have the necessary legal authorization, as it does not have a building permit and it did not create the necessary changes to the “Town Planning Scheme”!
• The Municipality seems to feel that it is above the law it forces others to follow. Unacceptable!

Call the Municipality. Let them know that residents, students and bicyclists alike oppose the Bike Path Project as unsafe.

Encourage your friends and neighbors to call as well. It takes only a few minutes to let your voice be heard.

This may be your last chance to voice your opinion directly to the city on this issue.

Thank you very much for your help.

Sincerely,

North Jerusalem Residents for Safety and Quality of Life (registered amuta)

News article

Today's ידיעות ירושלים contains an article by ציפי מלכוב about the bike path project.

Obstructing Ambulances as they save people's lives

Today the municipality roped off and marked an entirely new section of Churchill Boulevard for the construction of its ill-concieved and poorly planned bike path project. This was done in spite of persistent protests on the part of the Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus, as well such groups as "North Jerusalem Residents for Safety and Quality of Life".

Bike paths had recently been constructed on the upper portion of Churchill Boulevard that stretches between the Hospital and University. There, it has become very apparent that the narrowing of the streets that the project has entailed has caused severe traffic problems for passing vehicles, especially buses and trucks, while the bike paths themselves are infrequently used due to their poor and dangerous design. The width of the driving lanes was sacrificed for these bike paths which meant that no buffer zone was left at all between parked cars and passing traffic. As such, a single car that opens its door or bus that lets off passengers brings the entire street to a stand still. At the same time people exiting parked cars are endangered as they now must step out into moving traffic or the trench-like bike paths.

These same problems are now being extended down the hill to the section of Churchill Boulevard that acts as the main artery for the Hospital. While the problems created on the upper section of the road were sufficiently deplorable, they will be even more hazardous in this new section. This is due to the fact that this section is the main means of access to the Hospital. First and foremost, ambulances traverse this stretch of road. They must frequently race to or from the hospital in order to save a person's life. The traffic obstructions that this project creates will rob them of precious time needed to prevent deaths. The municipality knows that their work will cause problems for the ambulance drivers. However their response was that the ambulances will simply have to drive with a set of wheels on the shrubbery-filled traffic islands running down the center of the street. On top of that, this section of Churchill Boulevard provides the primary parking for visitors to the hospital, among them the infirm and sick, who will be forced to step out into passing traffic in order to receive their medical treatment.

This is the situation in the upper section of Churchill Boulevard and will be the same in the lower section where ambulances need to rush to and from the hospital to save lives.

An ambulance on its way to the hospital on Churchill Boulevard. The municipality feels that it is perfectly acceptable to force ambulances such as this to drive in the shrubbery as they race to and from the hospital to save lives.

The Bike Lane Project is Illegal - No building permit and no תב''ע

The 'North Jerusalem Residents for Safety and Quality of Life' Amuta found, through the help of their lawyer, that the dangerous Bike Path Project of the Jerusalem Municipality that has already caused a number of accidents and injuries, is being carried out without legal authorization. When asked, the Municipality confessed that the project does not, in fact, have a building permit. On top of that, the changes required by the Ministry of Transportation and the Laws of the State of Israel were not introduced to the תב''ע (Town Planning Scheme). Bike Paths are a new concept in Israeli transportation and constitute a 'substantial deviation from the planning scheme'. Such substantial change requires an emendation of the תב''ע (which is the legal plan that regulates the usage of land including streets) before being implemented.

The Municipality tried to defend the illegal execution of the project by claiming that it was a merely a 'Traffic Arrangement'. However, as was clarified in the Danziger Ruling in the High Courts about a week ago, a 'Traffic Arrangement' is used to solve a traffic problem in a specific location, and cannot be used to introduce a substantial change in the scheme of roads and streets. The Bike Path Project is a pilot program that is attempting to completely change the nature of the roads and therefore needs its principles to first be introduced to the תב''ע.

If there is no building permit, תב''ע or 'traffic arrangement', what is there? Unfortunately we have been left with a "Chelm" Plan that has not passed the legal procedures that would have prevented such a project from threatening the public safety.

It has come to our attention that on Sunday the illegal construction work will resume in the streets of French Hill. Stay posted to this blog to find out how you can help stop this disaster.

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