מאמרים וכתבות
Our Work
Action Areas
Improving Public Transport for Arab Israelis
Many Arab towns and cities in Israel suffer from poor to non-existent public transportation services. This has a major impact on access to employment and educational opportunities, and therefore on social and economic development.
At 15 Minutes one of our major goals is to improve public transport in Arab cities and towns in order to expand access to employment and educational opportunities in addition to necessary social services. We believe that improving public transportation in these areas is key to supporting socio-economic growth in Arab Israeli society.
Some of Our Activities:
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Active campaigns to improve public transport in Nazareth, Taibeh, and Qalansawa, which plans to expand to more cities soon
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Petitioning the Ministry of Transportation to add Arabic versions of all webpages, especially the site for complaint filing
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Publishing our activism guide into Arabic for distribution in Arab cities and towns in order to expand activist groups to anyone who wishes to participate
'Door To Door'
One of the reasons for the lack of trust and dissatisfaction with public transportation in Israel has to do with the fact that it is inconvenient, clumsy, unreliable, time consuming!
Imagine, being able to leave your house and knowing exactly when you’ll get to work!
Unfortunately, this is extremely rare, as your trip most likely involves walking to the bus station, waiting for the bus, transferring to the train, and then either walking from there to work, or possibly taking another bus to reach your destination. So many variables and transfers create a lot of opportunities for delays, especially when public transport tends to be unreliable and prone to delays.
An often un-talked about issue in public transportation in Israel is the concept of “door to door”, meaning the total time it takes from the moment you leave your origin, to the moment you arrive at your destination. This perspective deals with the entire trip, including walk time, transfer time, and added time for delays.
Green Commute
Every morning, roads in Israel are packed with hundreds of thousands of cars, usually occupied by one person trying to get to work. Road capacity doesn’t increase, but the number of trips made by Israeli commuters goes up every year, increasing commute times.
About 80% of congestion in Israel is caused by drivers trying to get to work. In addition to traffic jams, parking has also become a major issue. Parking costs can range from 500-1,000 NIS monthly, costing employers and employees thousands of shekels a year just for car storage during the workday. Employees often show up to work exhausted and irritated before the workday has even begun.
What can be done to solve this problem? How can we help employees leave the car at home and still get to work in a less stressful, greener way?
The “Green Commute” project address these issues by aiming to provide a range of transport solutions tailored to the needs of different employers and employees. As part of the project, employers can offer employees various, customized transportation solutions such as: shared shuttles to employment centers, carpooling systems, bicycle commuting, remote work, among others.
These tools help people choose greener paths to work, decreasing congestion, saving time, creating a calmer, more pleasant work environment, while saving on expenses like parking and gas reimbursements.
We believe the “Green Commute” project is a significant and necessary part of creating a green, efficient, fast transportation future for Israel.