It’s vacation time around Israel and during daylight savings time, the days are longer. During vacation time, more children and young adults are riding their bikes. This is true in the southern city of Beersheva too, where the Ohr Yarok (Green Light) NGO has set up an observation campaign headed in the city by model Shlumit Malka, hoping to increase awareness for rider safety and increased driver awareness.

This project is actually taking place in 125 municipalities around Israel, all under the Ohr Yarok umbrella.

The volunteers have documented 3,600 riders around the country, checking the following parameters;

• Riders wearing a helmet
• Riding on the sidewalk in contradiction to the law
• Obeying traffic signs and signals
• Using a mobile phone without a hands-free device

Following are the results from Beersheva, where most riders are not wearing helmets and use sidewalks despite the law prohibiting this, endangering pedestrians.

• 77% of riders were not wearing helmets
• 63% ride on sidewalks
• 11% fail to obey traffic signs and signals
• 16% were using a phone without a hands-free device
• 44% didn’t have a helmet and rode on the sidewalk.

It is pointed out that in most municipalities, there is a shortage of bike lanes.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)