The Minister of Transportation, Merav Michaeli, presented this morning (Thursday) the government’s plan for alternative solutions for the private car, which will be submitted to the government for approval this coming Sunday. The goal of the program, called the “Million Program,” is to take a million private car trips off the road within a year.
The plan is mostly based on plans and budgets that have already been allocated but it also has a few lines.
70 km of bus preference routes by the end of the year
The most significant news is the training of 120 km of bus preference routes immediately – that is, on the basis of the existing road infrastructure. In the first phase, 70 of them will be trained by the end of the current year and another 50 km later. The cost of setting up these preferred routes is NIS 150 million. These are overpasses and overpasses (such as Nativ Plus – where enforcement is almost non-existent) that will be built on urban and interurban roads. Apparently, in the first phase, a lane will be painted in favor of public transportation along Road 1, it is possible that the existing lane on the Ayalon North lanes will be extended to the Shalom Interchange and sections of Road 4.
However, the work plan published by the ministry last March included a target for training 74 km of shrapnel by the end of the year – in accordance with the goals of the government plan presented today. The big challenge in establishing shrapnel Execution of the ministry when these are in doubt, as well as with the local authorities who will prefer not to cancel travel routes before the election campaign which is also expected for mayors at the end of next year.
Despite the enforcement that has not proven itself in Lane Plus, the plan adds a budget to the traffic police to operate the motorcycle unit. An interim solution until the ministry establishes the enforcement unit at Natzim on the intercity roads, after it intends to operate it on the city roads as well, was halted in the discussions of the Economic Affairs Committee under the Arrangements Law, starting June 30, 2023. Another summary that appeared last August The plan and it is a pilot using enforcement cameras to be installed inside the buses, similar to the way the road guards project works.Only now is the head of the public transport authority obliged to check the feasibility of the move with the bus companies within 30 days.
In addition to the establishment of immediate crashes and increased enforcement, a budget increase of NIS 200 million is also provided over a five-year deployment to increase the frequency of buses in those immediate crashes that will open.
In addition, the plan includes measures to reduce the demand for daily trips in the private car. Under the plan, the finance minister will promote an outline for changing the wage components to which civil servants and the public sector are entitled and for changing the eligibility conditions. According to Michaeli, this step is intended to ensure reimbursement of expenses for vehicle ownership even without the need to prove ownership of a vehicle. According to Michaeli, this was done in agreement with the Histadrut and the Commission, but the move will require legislation that is not certain that it can be passed now.
In addition, an interesting section hidden in the plan speaks of a memorandum of law (whose uncertainty regarding legislative capacity exists) according to which a plan will be promoted for pricing the right to parking and internalizing its cost by the employee, and on the other hand, providing tax benefits and subsidies of means of transportation. The rationale is the change in law applicable with respect to the taxation of the income of employees requiring the employer to impute any benefit equal to money as part of their gross salary. This law does not currently apply to the allocation of parking by the employer. According to the plan, an outline will be formulated that will allow civil servants to work in regional work spaces that will save the need to get to offices.
The cost of the program: NIS 554 million
The Capital Market Authority will change the list of variables that affect the cost of insurance so that it will also take into account the mileage (mileage) made by the vehicle owner. The maximum price of NIS 2 per km in a collaborative trip will be doubled to increase the profitability of such trips and thus increase the use of apps that allow collaborative travel.
Another part of the plan includes accelerating infrastructure projects through a cash flow introduction of NIS 83 million. In terms of infrastructure, this is a small amount, but according to the plan, it will help accelerate the railway’s electricity project, so that the night and weekend service can return earlier than planned. Work teams will also be set up to formulate plans to accelerate the plans’ approvals together with the planning director and to adapt the land uses to the transport plans.
In addition, a team will be set up to deal with the shortage of drivers, but the team does not have the authority to charge the government budgetary expenses, when it is clear that part of the crisis concerns drivers’ salaries. According to Michaeli, the Ministry of Transport has managed to obtain a certain budget for a temporary improvement in drivers’ wages until there is a new state budget, but according to estimates it will not be able to raise wages dramatically.
A new website will also be set up to provide information on public transportation lines, and a puzzling clause in the plan allocates NIS 300 million to pilots in the field of technology – the highest amount budgeted in the Vipers program until 2026 when the effectiveness of this step is not clear.
The plan raised the possibility of expanding the “Through Value” experiment, which gives grants of up to NIS 2,000 a year to those who do not travel during rush hours. According to the plan, this project could completely replace the excise tax, in a way that would reflect the costs of air pollution and congestion and against the background of the expected decrease in excise tax receipts due to the transition to electric vehicles. “Such a tax would increase the price of travel in metropolitan centers and reduce the price of travel in the periphery. “The examination of the application of a model of equilibrium tariffs and its feasibility will also be based on the findings and insights formulated to date in the framework of the project,” it was written.
There are no schedules, but Michaeli is optimistic
The total cost of the plan is NIS 554 million in deployment by 2026 and is entirely from the existing sources of government ministries.
Michaeli stated that the implementation of the plan would be easy in light of the fact that the government decision would give effect to the measures and in light of the fact that the budget already exists in the sources of government ministries. However, it did not specify schedules and maps for the implementation of the tactical demonstrations, and any change in the wage model of civil servants and those employed in the economy will require changes in legislation and discussions with the Histadrut – steps that a transitional government will have difficulty performing.
In addition, parts of the plan have already appeared in government work plans, in the budget summary with the Ministry of Finance and in the Arrangements Law. On the other hand, the Ministry of Transportation claims that consolidating the various steps into one plan could lead to a 5% reduction in the travel split within a year, currently 85% of the trips are made using the private vehicle and the plan aims to reduce them to 80%.