For years, residents of Tschernihovski Street in Haifa have been warning the municipality about the danger of life lurking for pedestrians at the crosswalks on the street, and about the excessive speed of drivers who lose control of their vehicles and cause damage to property at best and lives at worst, and request that deceleration lanes be installed on the road.
There are two schools on Tschernihovski Street (Leo-Bak and the Tschernihovski School). There is a lively movement of children, youth and the elderly. The encounter between pedestrians and speeding drivers is dangerous and deadly. In recent years there have been several fatal accidents on the street.
Following the accident on 10/06/21, in which a 70-year-old woman was killed, the CEO of the Green Or Association also appealed to the Haifa municipality, requesting that it act to improve the situation, by placing speed bumps on the street.
Crosswalks are supposed to be the safest places for pedestrians, but reckless driving on the road, which we witness every day, prevents them from being so. If that's not enough, on winding and steep roads, like the roads in Haifa, a serious problem of field of vision arises. Add to the equation direct sunlight and roundabouts, some of which are not signposted, and you get a deadly recipe that makes life miserable for pedestrians. Such is Tschernihovsky Street in Haifa, the street that crosses the Carmel Sharfati neighborhood, and it is no wonder that every year it is visited by fatal traffic accidents.
The transportation engineer has been warning for years:
Moshe Leibovich, a resident of the French Carmel neighborhood and a transportation, traffic and road engineer, alerted the municipality about 16 years ago about the dangerous situation on the street.
This is what he wrote in the second letter he sent that year, in October 2005:
"The traffic and road engineers at the municipality determined at the time that the street is an arterial and therefore it is not possible to install deceleration lanes, I have a different opinion, and it is certainly possible to do so, at least at the crosswalks that exist on the street, one of which is exactly at a sensitive point near the bend near the entrance to the base, even at a "cost" creating A certain inconvenience for the large vehicles, which are also part of the celebration of speed... the reality is simply screaming and the writing is written on the wall. How many signals with no casualties should be received until there are also casualties among the people of the neighborhood/pedestrians on the sidewalks?'
15 years have passed and nothing has been done...
In a letter he sent last June, Leibovitch wrote:
"Today, it is possible to make elongated elevations that allow the passage of large vehicles such as buses and trucks without this being a problem, and I know that the municipality is already making these kinds of deceleration lanes in several places around the city...any solution that does not force drivers to physically slow down, which can be obtained through these elevations, It won't make drivers slow down and will leave the same problems of loss of control, damage to vehicles, and God forbid injury to the soul.''
The Green Light association is also disturbed by the situation
On 21/06/21, in light of the many inquiries received by Or Yerok association, the association's CEO, Erez Kita, appealed to Haifa Mayor Einat Kalish Rotem with a request that the municipality work to improve street safety by placing deceleration lanes that can significantly reduce pedestrian injuries Foot. "In Haifa, 1131 pedestrians were injured at a crosswalk in the last decade (2011-2020), of which 18 people were killed. In 2020, 85 pedestrians were injured at a crosswalk in the city, of which two people were killed.
Kita also wrote that "the State of Israel is a dangerous place to walk. We teach our children to cross only at a crosswalk, but the crossing has become dangerous and unsafe. The scene of the injury is very clear, so we must curb and moderate the speed of the vehicles by means of deceleration lanes in order to reduce the risk to injury. Limiting the speed of vehicles and slowing down traffic can significantly reduce the number of casualties and the number of road accidents. It is important to act now to prevent the next casualty and save lives."
Haifa Municipality responded by sweeping the road
Recently, apparently following the fatal accident that happened in Tschernihovsky at the beginning of June, roughing work was done on the bend of the road in front of the entrance to the military base, but the roughness of the road prevents slipping and does not sufficiently moderate the speed on the road.
In recent weeks, the Israel Police has launched increased and targeted enforcement operations in the city as part of the fight against traffic accidents, and you would do well to continue these enforcement operations alongside uncompromising day-to-day activities.
Two actions must be done at the same time:
The Israel Police must maintain order and increase its presence and enforcement on the roads, both urban and intercity, and the municipal authority must place deceleration lanes or traffic lights, anything that can organically and immediately moderate the speed of travel.
The Haifa Municipality refused to comment For the article
The council of sages of the failed mayor in the history of the city of Haifa sat down and decided to scrub the road! Now all road criminals can drive even faster because Klish has arranged for them better road grip.
To Ronan, I reported the races at night, on HaGil Street, to the police several times and nothing was done. In the past, when I repeatedly called the police, I was told that they couldn't find the street, since ??? ... We will wait for another accident beyond the ones that have already occurred there.
There is almost a night of car racing in Israel.
From Zio along Trumpeldor and HaGilil Street there is not even a separation area between the lanes.
A fatal accident is a matter of time.
I am in the market!
No response was given on behalf of the Haifa municipality.
Did Kalish or acting mayor Nachshon Tsuk ever give a response?
There is something that should be understood: traffic lights are dangerous to accumulate because they create an artificial intersection of traffic lanes, which produce sudden stops and crazy accelerations when the traffic light changes, and also tension and nervousness of the drivers. Also, a damaged traffic light is really a disaster and the distribution of times in each direction is often wrong. In short: the traffic light is an artificial pacemaker mounted on a healthy heart. Instead of traffic lights, we must return to the one-way road system, and if that is impossible, then roundabouts (two-lane roads). It both slows down the speed and creates safety and does not create traffic jams and allows the traffic to flow calmly.. All that is left for the driver is to learn simple principles of driving in a roundabout (research integration, correct transition from lane to lane, calm traffic) and that's it. To this day for about fifty years, I'm the only one talking about it.
We would be happy for a road that would shorten the descent to Stella Maris through the base and the continuation of Ze'ev Marcus Street without the need for the huge detour that exists today in Tschernihovski.
All that is needed is a small tunnel where the base begins after David Marcus Street, which will connect from Stella Maris Road to Tschernihovski and save about 5-6 minutes of driving to detour through Matzfur.
There is no reason why it has not been done to date and will also dramatically reduce the volume of traffic in the future Tschernihovski.
I lived there about 30 years ago and even then we turned to the authorities and nothing was done. Every morning you wake up and pray that your car parked on the road is not damaged in an accident at night. Despite many requests, nothing was done, so I moved to another area.
Everything is bullshit!
Do not protect murderers!
Traffic law number 1 if there is no field of vision or stop carefully or get off
foot off the gas and slowly press the brakes.
The road is not an extreme experience or an amusement park!
Whoever murdered the 67-year-old woman should be given the death penalty!!!!!!
Do not try to slip the murder into evidence. Point!
The speed limit in the city is regularly broken into speeding
70. 80. There is not even a doubt that a day when nothing happens is a day passed by a miracle.
Does Haifa Municipality respond to any issue at all? The failed mayor in the history of the city and the country
Putting speed bumps on main streets in Haifa will make driving unbearable. There is a traffic light and a traffic circle, what's the problem?
Can't understand how they don't take over such red roads in the city. Shed Hanasi, Tschernihovsky Street, and other roads near schools.
At the Technion there are well-known transportation consultants.
Can't understand this failure.?
Against raging drivers there is only one solution:
Prosecution.
There are cameras abroad
In the land of fever.
Irish midnight yesterday: a motorcyclist went on a rampage on Trumpeldor St. Hello and back.
I live in Shai Agnon and every night the noise of racing cars going up and down Stella Maris, and there is no police, they want me to go upstairs and write down the license number of these vehicles, really crazy
We in the Hadar neighborhood suffer from the same problem. Rabbi Akiva Street is a main road and there are schools and kindergartens and there are visibility violators at a height that does not cause slowing down and drivers fly on the road without a field of view.