MK Dov Khenin (Hadash – Joint List) has called upon the public to revolutionize public transport as a solution to Israel’s increasingly worsening traffic jams. In an interview published on Friday, October 21, in the Hebrew-language Economic Newspaper The Marker, MK Khenin told how he’s heavy user of public transport and, as such, is intimately aware of the ills of buses, trains and minibus-taxi transport in Israel. “For example, when I travel by train to Haifa on Thursdays, I have no place to sit. Sometimes I sit on the floor,” he said.

Khenin, who lives in Tel Aviv, is entitled as a member of the Knesset to receive from the state an executive suite car, but preferred to get a modest Hyundai and use public transport as much as possible. “In the context of my daily work as an MK, it greatly disturbs me that I have no way to get via public transport to communities in the outlying areas of the country or to Arab communities. It also bothers me that in many bus stops there isn’t available seating nor shelter from the sun or rain. And, of course, reaching my destination by public transport still takes longer than driving by car,” said Henin, who serves as chairman of the Knesset Subcommittee for Public Transportation.

“Traveling by cars is increasingly becoming a nuisance. We’re now in a situation in which transportation crisis in Israel has reached a critical point. Because the volume of vehicles on the roads, people are increasingly stuck in traffic jams and there are problems finding parking. For this reason, there is every reason to make a transition to public transportation. But this won’t happen if public transportation doesn’t become more efficient, convenient, inexpensive, and user friendly. The quality of public transport must be judged from the perspective of transport from door to door – and we’re still far away from this situation,” Khenin said.