Why people won’t give up their cars for Jerusalem’s light rail

The Jerusalem municipality, under the leadership of Mayor Moshe Lion, an accountant, is allocating billions of dollars in public monies (a price tag sure to go up) on its transportation master plan, building three light-rail lines – red, green and blue. The only line in operation today, which has been partially extended, is the red line. Bus service is notably poor.
Relocating infrastructure (electricity, communication, water and sewage lines) under the proposed light-rail lines will take years, not to mention the air and noise pollution during construction, before the very first tracks can be laid down. The hundreds of towers that have gone up and slated to be built along these lines are certain to exacerbate traffic problems with the dangers they present especially for children.

The municipality claims that with these three lines in place, along with several enormous park and ride garages (entirely lacking human scale), many will give up the use of their car. Disregarded are a host of factors pointing to the very opposite.

Why is the car so hard to beat? To begin with it is privately owned, personal, its interior space intimate, its driver in full control offering a sense of freedom. Many people develop an emotional attachment to their car, some see it as a status symbol. Families can travel together. Getting there, for many is relaxing, half the fun.

There are some 300,000 cars on Jerusalem’s roads today, their number swelling with each passing year, this in spite of worsening traffic and parking problems as well as rising maintenance, insurance and gasoline costs.

Compare the above with having to walk from your home or office to ride a crowded tram, many commuters complaining of security problems. Highly probable is that this extensive light-rail project being built with public treasure, will fail miserably, an extreme case of false optimism. Highly questionable is that even were all three of the light-rail lines in place, people will stop using their cars. The car, a private, intimate and personal four wheeled vehicle is extremely tough to compete with.