<\/p>\n
The budget for land transport infrastructure increased by 67% over\u00a0the last decade — from NIS 5.9 billion in 2000 to NIS 9.88 billion in 2011.<\/p>\n
This increase stands out against the cuts in other investment budgets. Investment in transport infrastructure should\u00a0indicate that an improvement is on the way, but transportation experts in\u00a0Israel expect the exact opposite. This is the contention of a new budget\u00a0document just published by the Adva Center, More Highways, More<\/span> Congestion<\/span>,\u00a0written by economist Adi Sofer.<\/p>\n In international comparison, Israel’s investment in transportation\u00a0infrastructure is not outstanding in terms of percentage of GDP, the accepted\u00a0indicator. In recent years it has constituted one percent of GDP, similar to\u00a0the OECD average.<\/p>\n Despite the large investment (relative to the investment budgets of\u00a0other government ministries), the Ministry of Transport expects a loss of NIS\u00a025 billion in 2030 due to congestion. The main reason for this prediction is\u00a0the government’s preference for infrastructure investments that serve car\u00a0travel over those that serve public transportation. This policy, while easing\u00a0up some of the pressure on roads in the short run, has resulted in a growing dependence\u00a0on car travel.<\/p>\n Railroad transport is the most efficient way of travel, especially\u00a0in metropolitan areas. In comparison with developed countries in the OECD,\u00a0which allocate approximately 40 percent of their transport investments to railroads\u00a0\u2013for metropolitan areas as well as inter-city travel \u2013 Israel still lags\u00a0behind. The solution to the problem of congestion in the Gush Dan area is in\u00a0rail travel.<\/p>\n The preference for car travel is more advantageous for the affluent\u00a0than for the rest of the population, more advantageous for men than for women,\u00a0for adults more than for children and teenagers, for young people more than for\u00a0senior citizens, and for Jews more than for Arabs. As for Arab localities, they\u00a0are still at the margins of public transport, whether the subject is highways\u00a0or railroads.<\/p>\n Regarding peripheral areas, the Adva Center report recommends investing\u00a0in regional public transportation, together with the development of regional\u00a0employment centers. This is in sharp contrast to the present policy, which\u00a0places the emphasis on a future of commuting from the periphery to the center\u00a0and back \u2013 a solution that is not only inefficient but also will fail to ease\u00a0traffic jams or social gaps.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Investment in transport infrastructure should indicate that an improvement is on the way, but transportation experts in Israel expect the exact opposite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[164,110],"class_list":["post-1746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-budget-and-economy","tag-transportation","tag-state-budget","author-162","category-10"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n