Red Line stations have inadequate access outside Tel Aviv

After years of anticipation and delays of about two years, the Tel Aviv light rail Red Line is due to open within a month. The line will connect Petah Tikva with Bat Yam via Bnei Brak, Ramat Gan and Tel Aviv and will carry tens of thousands of passengers every day. But while in Tel Aviv work has been completed to connect surrounding public spaces to stations, the situation in the other cities where the line will pass is completely different.

For example, the Jabotinsky Street section from Ramat Gan and Bnei Brak to Petah Tikva has not yet been adapted to the change. It remains mainly a transport artery without any inviting public space for pedestrians. The situation is similar in Bat Yam where the stations are mostly surrounded by fences, and the public space around them is not adapted to the throngs of people expected to pass through the area.

While Tel Aviv has adapted the public spaces around the stations as required, the other cities along Red Line only now understand the extent of the change that will be needed to adapt the station areas to the transformation once the line starts operating. It will be far more difficult to implement the required changes, once the line is running and the situation on the ground has been changed.

“Public transport is used first and foremost by pedestrians but planners don’t seem to have taken this into account,” says architect Irit Solsi of the Irit & Dror architectural firm.

She added, “We are very comfortable in a car because it has air conditioning, maybe even a heated seat in the winter, candies in the glove compartment, music and the illusion of independence. On the other hand, public transport involves waiting around, crossing roads, walking, hot sun – and all of these influence our decision whether to use it or prefer other options”.

Whoever planned the surroundings of the stations in Tel Aviv took these considerations into account. For example, those who live or work in the Montefiore neighborhood of the city will be able to use the bike path or the boardwalk that has been renovated on Yehudit Boulevard to reach the “Yehudit” light rail station located on Derech Menachem Begin in Tel Aviv.

People can ride or walk along a renovated street with a bicycle path or widened sidewalk to the nearby Israel Railways Hashalom station. Neve Tzedek residents will be able to walk along pleasant paths, or ride a bicycle to the railway park, which was completed two years ago, with a light rail station in the center. Workers in the towers built on Yitzhak Sade Street will be able to walk to the office or ride a scooter to and from the light rail station.

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The Red Line was approved by the district committee over 20 years ago, even before the National Infrastructures Committee was founded, when planners faced less pressures and demands.

After that Tel Aviv Municipality together with the Ministry of Transport promoted plans for the areas around the city’s stations, primarily Menachem Begin Street and the roads around the Kirya. The concept was to transform it from a transport route into a pedestrian-friendly street, although there is criticism of the way it was done. The plan for Menachem Begin Road included widening sidewalks, planting trees, two-lane bicycle paths on both sides of the road, the addition of pedestrian crossings and renewal of street furniture. Other projects were also promoted in Tel Aviv such as the expansion of sidewalks and bike paths at Hashalom Junction, construction of a railway park near Elifelet station (along the route of the old Jaffa-Jerusalem railway), the renewal of Jerusalem Boulevard in Jaffa and other projects.

Some plans were achieved after campaigns by residents, such as in Jerusalem Boulevard where the original plan included cutting down many trees. There were also mistakes which, according to transport experts, will be regretted for generations such as the municipality’s demand to make the line partially underground, thus harming convenience of use and urban functioning.

Outside of Tel Aviv there are no metropolitan standards

These types of development have not yet reached the cities surrounding Tel Aviv. An example of this can be found in the State Comptroller’s report, which noted that due to lack of an agreement between the Ministry of Finance Accountant General and Ramat Gan Municipality, it was decided that the over-ground section between the city’s stations would not be developed, and that there were no metropolitan standards for development around stations.

Summaries of discussions between NTA Metropolitan Mass Transit System, which oversaw the entire project, and relevant regulators in government ministries, which took place three years ago, show “There was no agreement between the municipalities (Ramat Gan and Bnei Brak) on development, including the need for bicycle paths.”

The problematic planning in terms of pedestrians, and the lack of investment around stations, has created major problems in the area. In Bat Yam, stations are surrounded by high fences that prevent urban pedestrian traffic, in Petah Tikva the train is between many lanes of private cars making access for passengers difficult, and Jabotinsky Street in Ramat Gan and Bnei Brak remains more of a highway than an urban street. Bicycle paths have also not paved and insufficient public transportation routes lead to the Red Line’s stations have not been instituted.

Tel Aviv Municipality director of transport, traffic and parking authority Ofir Cohen said, “The Red Line is the most important transport system but it is a system that allows access to Gush Dan and does not work on its own but through an interface with public spaces and other transport systems and has a relationship with nearby buildings to it.”

He added, “In the world of transport, projects must be unified. Exits and entrances of light rail stations must optimally connect to bus stops, bus lines, through a pedestrian network with wide sidewalks, because 500 people use the station each hour and we need to create a shaded and high-quality, wide sidewalk for them and connect with bicycle paths because this is a complementary measure. All these are part of a complete set of connections.

“Regarding the state’s lack of success in connecting the Red Line to Israel Railways due to planning limitations, they are trying to fix and connect the Red Line station in Jabotinsky to Tel Aviv Central Savidor with an underground passage, but this is a plan that is being promoted half-heartedly.”

Cohen explains that in addition to the transport links, it is also necessary to create space walking around near the stations, including closing streets to traffic. Cohen said, “In 2010, we recognized that the state’s view of the light rail is project-based, but there is a huge public space that needs to be connected, so we initiated joint projects with the state.”

Tel Aviv has a structural advantage in developing public spaces

Shira Glitman, a partner in the Malis Architecture and City Building firm thinks that the gap between Tel Aviv and other cities is not surprising. “Tel Aviv Municipality is strong and it knows what it wants. No one can threaten it that if it does not agree to something, the line will not pass through it.

“This is true for better or worse but it is not always right. For example, putting the Red Line underground was its demand and it meant the cost of a metro for a light rail service. Other municipalities lack this balance of power vis-à-vis the authorities and there are many stakeholders involved.”

Ofir Cohen also admits that Tel Aviv has the ability to integrate and lead such moves and is also richer and has added major budgets to those provided by the Ministry of Transport. In Petah Tikva and Bat Yam, the development around the stations is according to the standard set by the ministry, but in Tel Aviv the municipality has established a dedicated department for the issue and has professional and skilled personnel. The dense construction and mixed purpose building use in the city in relation to the other authorities also allows for better urban functioning.

Officials at Bat Yam Municipality agree that development of station space has been done in a way that does not fully promote pedestrian accessibility, and notes that the municipality is working on supplementary plans that will be carried out in the coming years.

Bat Yam Municipality also stresses that they were strongly opposed to the establishment of fences between the stations and the street, but NTA refused. Bat Yam Municipality says, “In cooperation with the Ministry of Transport, the municipality is promoting planning of tens of kilometers of cycle paths (in addition to maintaining them), significant planting of trees in the streets, for shade and comfort for pedestrians, and improving sidewalks that will make the light rail accessible as much as possible.”

Ramat Gan Municipality explains that the previous city administration refused the NTA’s request to participate in the NIS 49 million upgrade of Jabotinsky Street and that the municipality expressed its willingness to participate in part of the development costs. The municipality also said that “By law, Ramat Gan Municipality does not have the authority to carry out any work on Jabotinsky Street, which has been under the exclusive authority of NTA for several years and the ball is in their court.”

However, Ramat Gan Municipality has not developed bicycle lanes or bus routes that feed into the Red Line. This is in contrast to Petah Tikva Municipality, which in recent years has begun promoting public transport in the city, including opening bus terminals near the Grand Mall and Kiryat Aryeh railway station, as well as building bus lanes near the light rail, and has also signed an agreement with the Ministry of Transport to add bicycle lanes and bus lanes at a cost of NIS 500 million.

“This is alongside extensive investment in the roofing of public space and in particular in the public transport areas, where in every project the municipality makes sure to plant new trees, to encourage walking and staying in public spaces and more,” said the municipality. Yet, the passenger experience in reaching the light rail, even in Petah Tikva, will not always be pleasant.

“In order for the surroundings of the light rail station to be as effective as possible, the main thing required is that within walking distance of the station and up to 500 meters from it, there will be many residents, businesses, destinations, and there will be a lot of construction of all kinds in its vicinity, and in this respect you see a difference between Tel Aviv and the other cities,” explains Nachman Shelef of the Merhav Movement of Israeli Urbanism.

He adds, that renting bicycles and electric scooters together with bicycle paths allow people to reach triple the distance in the same amount of time as walking and for this reason the light rail stations in Tel Aviv give greater coverage.

Eyal Santo, also from Merhav, adds, “With the exception of the big mistake putting part of the light rail underground, public space in Tel Aviv has not been harmed or surrounded by fences like in Bat Yam, where on Herzl, Balfour and Yoseftal streets the public space looks like a prison. In Tel Aviv the light rail enhances public spaces, while in Bat Yam it destroys it. The same is true in Petah Tikva where the stations do not support pedestrians. At least along Jabotinsky Street, a change is expected in the future, so this is not a fait accompli.”

Responses: “Development work of billions of shekels

NTA said, “Construction works on the Red Line included the replacement of all the infrastructure in all the cities (five cities) through which the light rail passes, in the areas that cross or interface with the tracks. In this way, NTA actually upgraded the infrastructures of the aforementioned cities (Bat Yam, Tel Aviv, Bnei Brak, Ramat Gan and Petah Tikva) with total costs amounting to billions of shekels.

“Regarding the area between the stations in Bnei Brak and Ramat Gan, NTA conducted coordination and planning with the authorities, but execution is conditional on an agreement that the authorities are supposed to sign with the state, in all regards to surface development in those areas where the line goes underground. These agreements have not been signed at this stage, so it is not possible to proceed with development.”

Bnai Brak Municipality and the Ministry of Transport declined to comment.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on July 11, 2023.

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