A Jerusalem City Hall initiative to offer bicycle rentals as is done in Tel Aviv is placed on hold due to objections to the plan from chareidim. The plan is based on the Tel Aviv model known as Tel-O-Fun, permitting visitors and residents in the capital to rent a bike for a number of hours and return it to one of the city’s bike stations. However, chareidi city councilmen objected, placing the plan on hold despite the fact hundreds of thousands of shekels have already been invested. The chareidi opposition stems from fears the bicycles will be rented on and used on Shabbos.
The plan entails parking 500 bicycles in the fifty stations set up around the city to permit persons to rent them and drop them off at any station. The project costs NIS 10 million a year and a portion of the funding has already been enlisted and hundreds of thousands of shekels have already been invested as reported above.
City officials report the plan is in the early stages, stating it is an important plan along with the expansion of the light rail. Councilman Yitzhak Pindrus of Degel Hatorah told Haaretz the facts are incorrect as he or his colleagues did not oppose the plan.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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If Councilman Yitzhak Pindrus of Degel Hatorah told Haaretz the facts are incorrect as neither he or his colleagues oppose the plan, why is our web site YWN running a headline “Chareidi Opposition Places Jerusalem Bicycle Rental Plan On Hold” followed by a whole article slamming [non-existent] Charedi opposition to the plan? Or is it that the YWN Israel Desk does not believe Rabbi Pindrus?