Dear Rabbi Brim, head of Agudath yisrael faction in J/lm, here are suggestions

DearRabbi Yitzchak Tzachi Brim שליט”א,  
               First of all, I would like to wish you a massive MazelTov on your successful election bid and your appointment as a member of the Jerusalemmunicipality. I would also like to express my admiration for you taking thisextremely difficult job. We are both more than aware that many of yourpredecessors have suffered disappointment and disenchantment in the job, andleft the position feeling frustrated, so I respect you for accepting it.

But letme explain why I am writing to you. You give the impression that you aregenuinely concerned about the various problems facing Yerushalayim and its citizens,and that you have the energy and commitment to work on fixing them. You evenannounced that within your first hundred days in office, you will lay out aplan to deal with the chronic traffic, and other problems. Since I have anumber of ideas for you – but no other way to reach you, I decided that I wouldwrite you an open letter on this forum.

 We all agree that the traffic is a massive massive problem facing our dear city. Besidesfor the unexplainable aggravation of sitting for hours in traffic, running latefor school pickup or appointments, we all understand that if shops, services,clinics and restaurants were more accessible, they would all gain, and, as theysay, a rising tide lifts all boats, generally helping the city’s economy. Iftheir suppliers would require less time and gasoline for deliveries, it mayjust impact the price for the consumer, etc ….

And I do not to deny, or in any way diminish, the tremendous work done by your predecessors.The numerous bus lanes, the Route 16 from Bayit Vegan to the city entrance, theincreased direct buses, the future bus terminal, and the work on the right railare all amazing works, which together should make a significant difference to thecity.

Nonetheless,there is so much more to be done, and so many more people to be taken into consideration.Especially it being that you represent the Chareidi tzibbur, I cannot help feelthat you should be aware of a few ideas that would lichorah make a significantdifference.  First of all,  – you might not have thought ofthis at all – numerous passengers end up coming through the city entrance forabsolutely no reason. You see, there is verylittle bus service between say, Beit Shemesh and Kiryat Sefer, Afula, Tevariah,etc ……. All this brings about that any passenger who wishes to travel from BeitShemesh to any of these places ends up coming into Yerushalayim, and thenchanging bus. By simply increasing the bus service between the various towns and each other, besides for making these people’s lives way easier, you may save a significant amount of passengers from coming through the city.

Secondly, there is an intercity train, but unfortunately, it is virtually useless to many of your constituents. You see there simply no luggage carts availablein the main Yitzchak Navon station, and very little access for a chareidifamily who wishes to travel with many children and suitcases to the airport. Additionally,the only way to get to B’nei B’rak – undoubtedly the most travelled route by yourconstituents, – is by changing train, which is virtually impractical for largefamilies. If you would simply make a luggage cart system, and a regular trainstraight to B’nei B’rak you will help many of us use the train and cut downextensively on road traffic. [A direct chain to Haifa, with regular buses from thereto Afula etc ….. will also make things quicker and easier for many, and lowerthe traffic on the roads somewhat.]

The lightrail system, if I may say so, does not seem to have been designed with the chareidi passenger in mind. By simply adding a stop next to Yeshivas Mir / Kikar Z’hvil you will make life easier – and light rail travel more attractive – for many avreichim. Similarly, the branch that is being built under Rechov Strauss should include a stop for Yeshivas Brisk. After all it does not make sense to allow a system to be built over a decade with investment of millions of shekels, and not take into account the two busiest destinations for Chariedi yungerleit.  

As to the roads. You are undoubtedly aware of the preposterous traffic coming into town from the Golda Meir road every morning. A simple system would lichorah be to build a bridge for vehicles into Har Chotzvim. This will simply ensure that the bulk of the inward traffic does not need to wait to turnleft, and will surely make a difference. Additional bridges should be buillt by the Begin Blvd, and, if possible, by Shmuel Hanavi Bar Ilan. Once these are in place, I imagine the traffic should clear up. [Since it may take you a bit of time to get these bridges up and running, may I humbly suggest in the meantime, that the setting on the traffic light into har chotzvim is changed during the day. There is no reason at 4 p.m., when rush hour traffic is leaving, that everyone should wait while two empty lanes have a green light to turn left !!!!! ]

Givat Sha’ul junction, if possible, should also be replaced with a bridges, and an exit should be made from Givat Sha’ul straight onto Begin Blvd. Again, this will savepassengers coming into the city unnecessarily.

If possible – just a couple more bridges …… There is no left turn at the end ofMeah Shearim, which forces any traffic from Meah Shearim to shlep through the entire Beis Yisroel neighborhood. If there would be a way to turn leftonto Shivtei Yisrael and go that way, it would significantly reduce traffic inBeis Yisroel.

The Sanhedria neighborhood is similarly very very limited and congested, with only one usable exit at the bottom of a labyrinth of one way streets. If you would open Achinoam Street onto Mishmar HaGvul it would save everyone from going unnecessarily round and round, and cut down on traffic, noise, and pollution in our very very special city. [An additional solution would be to include the exit from Sha’ul Hamelech into the main Shmuel Hanavi Bar Ilan junction, thereby enabling a left turn out of Sanhedria towards the city centre. However, I doubt this can be done until the junction itself is replaced with vehicular bridges.] 

One last thing. Someone started building a road from Har Chotzvim to Ramat Shlomo, but seems to have fallen asleep in the middle. If you could somehow wake them up and get them to resume working – and while they are at it, perhaps make it three lanes in each direction, with an exit to Sanhedria / Ramat Eshkol, ……………….now that would be a real real help.   p.s. if you want you can contact me through the editor ….. I have loads more ideas, but I’ve limited it to the main ones.