Haifa's scooter circuit
Lior, a software developer at Intel who lives in Bat Galim, starts his morning with a cup of coffee on the balcony overlooking the sea and from there he goes on a stunning bike ride along the beach, on the most beautiful bike path in Israel. On the way he meets Ilan Ma'in Hayam and they continue together to the bicycle parking lot at Intel's new offices in Matam. Lior entered the office with a smile on his face and for a moment he remembered how he used to come in exhausted after driving through the traffic lights and searching for parking. He remembers how worried he was about every football game in 'Sami Ofer', afraid that he would be stuck in the parking lot exit traffic for half an hour.
The beginning of a circle
The "scooter circle" is the expression Tel Avivians call the high-tech office area between Yigal Alon and Evan Gvirol, which is built as a circle that allows employees to get from home to work by bicycle for up to 10 minutes and where the most prestigious offices in Tel Aviv are located, (as was written a few weeks ago in The Marker ).
A scooter circuit close to the sea
Only Haifa can have a much nicer scooter circuit than Tel Aviv's. While the high-tech offices of Tel Aviv are close to the Ayalon routes and the train stations, in Haifa the main roads and the train stations close to the beach meant that the employment areas are located near the amazingly beautiful beach of Haifa. The disadvantage of Haifa is being cut off from the coast due to the railway becomes an advantage in this case, and improves the way to work. After the rail tunnel is completed, Haifa will be separated from both worlds. The most beautiful scooter circuit in Israel and a link to the sea. Linking Bat Galim to MTA is just the first step that needs to be taken. Many neighborhoods in Haifa can connect to the Haifa scooter circuit. The sea neighborhoods on the road from Bat Galim to the MtM, which are Ein Hayam, Kiryat Sheprincek, Ramat Hanasi and Neve David, can be connected to the bicycle route along the beach. On the other side is the Naot Peres neighborhood which is the closest residential neighborhood to the MTA, but there is no bike path that connects it and forces everyone to travel by car to work a distance that is shorter in the morning by bike. A Naot Peres link will also allow many to get to the games at the stadium via the bike path and can reduce congestion.
The planar advantage
It is often said that the neighborhoods closest to the sea in Haifa are the cheapest and most neglected, unlike the rest of the world, the coastal neighborhoods are often the most expensive. Although this Haifa anomaly is improving with the sharp increase in apartment prices in Bat Galim, the downtown and Sea neighborhoods are still neglected and do not come close to realizing their potential. The use of the planar advantage in them can be the one that will significantly improve the face of these neighborhoods and lead to their flourishing.
The second circle
We only talked about one scooter circuit, around Mtm. But why one circle when there can be two? Another circle should be built around the lower city and the area designated for the "seafront". Although the seafront is currently planned for 2035, Haifa's downtown can flourish long before that. A branch of AM:PM and WeWork recently opened on Independence Road in Haifa, as if implying that this is where the second scooter circuit should be built. Route 4 that passes through the congested Azmaatwat Road prevents the area from waking up.
And despite the matron, which is the bright spot in the area, it is still very difficult to get around from the nearby neighborhoods. There isn't even a sequence of sidewalks between some of the neighborhoods, let alone bike lanes. Even in the port, important processes of halachicism have already begun, they simply need to be completed in order to reap the fruits. The renovation of the Turkish market and the streets near the port have already stimulated the area.
to connect the neighborhoods
Now it remains to connect the neighborhoods surrounding the port by a network of bicycle paths and renewing sidewalks. The downtown is a heart that is on the verge of a heart attack because the arteries from the other neighborhoods are blocked and you just need to unblock them for the area to flourish. You can start by renewing the sidewalk and paving a bicycle path on Jaffa Street in the part that connects the German colony to the Turkish market to create a space for wandering and a link to the lower city. But, in turning the downtown into a paradise for cyclists, brave decisions will be needed. Sometimes, this will have to come at the expense of street parking that has to be turned to parking lots that need to be built in the area. On the other hand, the increase in the use of bicycles will significantly reduce the need for cars for people who are near the area.
The sidewalk marking is not a bike lane
And another thing, if there is something very important to learn from Tel Aviv's mistakes, is the infamous bicycle path on Ibn Gvirol Street. So let's say it now clearly: taking a sidewalk and marking it with a white stripe and painting a bicycle is not a bicycle path. Bike lanes should have height separation and measures that will keep pedestrians safe. The addition of bike lanes must not come at the expense of sidewalk safety and this process will require significant enforcement of cycling violations.
Haifa has an excellent master plan for bicycle tours that includes a network of trails throughout the city. And also a detailed plan for a metropolitan bike path that is awaiting budgeting from the Tel Aviv Ministry of Transportation. incidentally. Not keen on the hi-techists. The new Intel building is indeed very "green", "sustainable" and "indulgent", but it is completely alienated from the city. which does not allow any commerce or connectivity between the city and the sea
It is difficult to continue reading an article whose beginning is filled with so many errors in Hebrew
What is "Haifa City Station" - appearing on the map?
By the way, the Hecht Park and the lone bike path in it were not financed by the municipality only with the development budget, but mainly from a donation from the Hecht Foundation, and until the donation was received for 3 years, the municipality did not start work in the field.
The destroyed stadium road was also not renovated by Yahav for ten years and was renovated only by the Israel Ports Company, which is a really uninteresting bicycle route between Haifa and Kiryat. It's fine even when they poured a billion and a half shekels to paint the bricks a red color that fades in the sun, it didn't interest Yaffe Nof and the matron's financial robbery crimes to make sure that those intersections on Bar Yehuda Road, the Lower City or Warburg and Jerusalem will be combined with bike lanes.
Because no one forced them to do it.
As far as Haifa-Kharfa is concerned, the asphalt road is only for private vehicles, therefore there is no bike path even on the way of the heroes after NIS 300 million.
Not even around the Kiryats. Not building a prize either. This is how Haifa created the migration of residents who are tired of seeing how they pay the property tax, one of the three highest in the country, and receive roads and sidewalks with potholes, cheap asphalt coverings that are crumbling, shoddy development, saplings in squares instead of quality development. A municipality that the city works to maintain instead of the opposite.
In the visualization of the stadium, a magnificent golden pedestrian bridge with strings appeared for those who remember. After petitions against the municipality years later, the court ordered the municipality of Haifa to build a pedestrian and bicycle bridge to the stadium over Route 4. The previous mayor Yahav promised Naot Peres that a pedestrian and bicycle bridge would be built between the neighborhood and the seashores over Route 4 and the train station on Nahum Hat Street. Kalish promised such bridges to the residents of Neve David and an increase in simulations of urban renewal.
The problem is that in the field everything remains simulations. With the Haifa Municipality's development money, huge salaries and huge pensions are paid to the millionaire municipality retirees who are devouring the future for the future generation. There is no money for the development of the city and everything remains in the scope of good will and beautiful paintings or straight to the drawers of the engineering director.
Haifa is dead because the Haifa municipality robs most of the budget for salaries and wastes such as the 2030 administration, renovations of offices, lots of propaganda, and the budgeting of sectoral associations for industrial peace without employees and without compliance with proper management.
Well done ! Let's hope that it will not be just a dream but a reality in the near future. Stunning article!
What's more... Lee is riding quietly on the path of a bicycle and suddenly a pedestrian is walking on the same path... I call him, try to explain to him that there is a pedestrian path nearby, angry with me! Why? Why?
Why a scooter and bicycle circle if you can walk?
I walk from Tamam to Bat Galim along the beautiful beach at least once a week.
A walking path is no less important??
Haifa is taking giant steps backwards. Have you found one safe path for bicycles and that's it? All the rest of Haifa is dangerous for cyclists.
In addition, enforcement against motorized vehicles on the bike path is important. Electric bikes are like a scooter and their place is on the road. They travel at a high speed that endangers ordinary cyclists.
A beautiful initiative that I wish would happen, given the difficulty in hiring employees. Everyone flocks to the center because of the ecosystem. The accessibility of work is one of the main factors around which the hi-tech community develops. There is still much to do in Haifa to promote this
In Haifa, it is more likely that the Klish will make a circle of wild boars, the area of illegal feeding that groups wild boars in the neighborhoods between Hadar Alyon, the center of Carmel, and Ahuza. A circle of bored elderly people who think that wild boars are like street cats.
The matron is not a bright spot. With a deficit of one billion shekels and the inability for Egged buses to use this resource
Bored seniors? You might think that young people don't feed pigs. It's enough to go down on people you think are "elderly". You too will be like that one day.