Ride-sharing: A solution for congestion in Tel Aviv?

March 18, 2018: I boarded an early morning train to reach Tel Aviv from Rehovot. The train was packed. So much so, I was having a hard time breathing while struggling to hold onto something while the train was moving. Take this from someone who comes from India (a country known for overcrowded trains and buses), now you can get to understand the severity of the situation. I was accompanied by a Chinese colleague (at the <a href="http://israelasiacenter.org/leadership/israel-asia-leaders-fellowship/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Israel-Asia Leaders Fellowship</a>) and soon we moved to a comparative discussion focusing how public transport in Tel Aviv compares to say, Delhi and Beijing. There is no denying the fact that Tel Aviv is a growing city. It has more startups than anywhere else (with the exception of Silicon Valley) [<a href="http://nocamels.com/2016/11/tel-aviv-startup-ecosystem-third/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">1</a>] and is the ninth most expensive city in the world [<a href="http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Tel-Aviv-now-ninth-most-expensive-city-in-the-world-545320" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">2</a>]. Everywhere around, you can feel and appreciate the vibrancy. Understandably, with such rapid growth comes tremendous load on the public infrastructure, most notably the public transport. In terms of vehicular traffic, Tel Aviv is already the congested city among OECD nations [<a href="http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-israels-roads-are-most-heavily-congested-in-oecd-1001141535" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">3</a>]. With close to 400,000 residents and another 600,000 people commuting to Tel Aviv from surrounding areas — there are already 1,000,000 people directly impacted by transport policies of the city authorities. Not surprisingly, it is already a topic of discussion among these people [<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-traffic-congestion-is-choking-israel-1.5464916" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">4</a>]. <a href="https://medium.com/sandipan-dasgupta/ride-sharing-a-solution-for-congestion-in-tel-aviv-93d17138134b">Read More</a>