Park and Ride lots approved to accompany Tel Aviv area light rail construction

Years of construction on the region’s light rail, slated to stretch from Petah Tikvah in the north to Bat Yam in the south, began Sunday night.

By SHARON UDASIN
Updated: AUGUST 5, 2015 03:27
A sign warns of upcoming light rail construction on Tel Aviv's Hamasger Street (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
A sign warns of upcoming light rail construction on Tel Aviv's Hamasger Street
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
The National Council for Planning and Building has approved the establishment of “park-and-ride” lots in the Tel Aviv metropolitan region as construction begins on the region’s light rail, the Finance Ministry announced Tuesday.
During the work on the light rail, traffic will be limited on many streets and major intersections of the Dan region, explained a statement from the ministry. The addition of park-and-ride lots aims to ease congestion in the area and provide residents, visitors and employees with smoother access to the city’s population centers, according to the program.
Construction on the light rail, which is slated to stretch from Petah Tikva in the north to Bat Yam in the south, began on Sunday night.
The council approved the establishment of the parking lots for a three-year period, through an expedited permitting process due to the national importance of the program, the ministry statement said.
The lots will be temporary, serving the public only during the construction period, the statement added; the lands will return to their designated purpose afterward.
The first two park-and-ride lots will be located in Beit Dagan and Mitzpe Modi’in. At later stages in the light rail’s construction, there will also be parking lots at Tel Baruch Beach, Ganei Yehoshua, Kiryat Arye, Kiryat Shaul, Azor, Rishon Lezion’s Moshe Dayan Street, and the Glilot interchange.
According to the ministry, the selection of the sites for the park-and-ride – an initiative of the NTA Metropolitan Mass Transit System Ltd. – was based on a number of parameters, such as design aspects, land costs, environmental features and transportation benefits.