Mystery Bus...

Another bus "service" rant. Public transportation here has its good points and bad ones. Of course I'm happy we have buses, and there's a nice percentage of them that go up to my neighborhood. I've even begun to trust them enough to wait for the buses around the corner from my house, rather than leave home much earlier to walk to the main stop.

We also have these screens that are supposed to tell us, which line is arriving, which direction (last stop) and when, meaning in how many minutes it should arrive.

One problem is that only one bus line is ever mentioned, though two come to Shiloh. Davka only one to my neighborhood. At the bus stop in the "center" which services both bus lines, only the 461 shows up.

And now things are worse, because, as you can see, it doesn't give the "destination" information. There's no way to know if the expected bus is going to Jerusalem or Maale Levona.

It's a mystery....

Downtown Jerusalem, Like a Pedestrian Wonderland

When the Jerusalem Light Rail was being planned and constructed, everyone was so inconvenienced and pessimistic about it. It was clear to all that it would be a disaster and a deadly one, Gd forbid. Statistics from other cities were bandied about, and we expected quite a few deaths each year from careless pedestrians and distracted train drivers.

Amazingly, bli eyin haraa, Jerusalemites have taken very well to the trains and the tracks, which are empty most of the time. And, as you can see in the picture, Jaffa Road fills with pedestrians, cyclist etc when there's no train to be seen. And the trains are equipped with loud horns to convincly urge everyone out of the way when necessary.

For those of us who have always gone to the downtown  Jerusalem "triangle*," we are enjoying the new reality. The air is much clearer without the bus fumes and other pollutants. We've learned how to get our tickets and pay for the train rides. It's hard to remember what Jerusalem was like just a few years ago before the train...  Yes, very much like how only a few of us oldtimers remember when there was vehicular traffic on Ben-Yehuda Street, even taxi stands.

Things change. Yes, that's life.

*the "triangle" is the area between Jaffa Road, Ben-Yehuda Street and King George Avenue, which forms a triangle.