It was bad enough when safety railings were put up at the rear of traffic-island bus stops to prevent pedestrians from running across the road to catch a bus. It didn't stop the more agile members of the public from running and vaulting over the top – some with admirable grace. The safety railings are quite ugly, and it would not have hurt the municipality to plant narrow gardens in their stead. Now, we also have a half dozen or so ugly low poles in front of bus stops, presumably to prevents cars from parking there, or buses inadvertently moving onto the pavement. While the reason was valid – to protect the public from terrorist acts such as car rammings – the thinking was faulty. These poles don't really contribute to safety and constitute an obstacle not only to people with limited mobility, but to those who have no mobility problems at all. If there are several people waiting at the stop for the bus, there is nowhere for them to move if someone wants come past with a walker, on a scooter or in a wheelchair. Mothers with baby carriages get frustrated because the back door of the bus is often flush with one or two of the poles, which makes it that much more difficult to get the baby carriage on board. People who are anxious that the doors of the bus may close before they are able to alight or board the bus suffer even greater anxiety when the pole is in the way. If all these problems contribute to tension on regular streets, imagine what it's like on a Thursday afternoon or a Friday morning in Agrippas Street, where one side has poles on an exceedingly narrow pavement, for approximately a third of the length of the street where the stalls and shops are located. Pedestrians get stuck in the crowd, and in order to disengage themselves have no choice but to step into the road and pray that there's no oncoming bus before they get to the other side. From time to time, Jerusalem is compared to Chelm. Certainly whoever determines the traffic and safety regulations was educated in Chelm – where the tendency was to scratch one's left ear with one's right hand. This is not entirely dissimilar to cars being allowed to turn the corner from, for example, Ahad Ha'am Street onto Keren Hayesod Street as pedestrians are crossing the road on Keren Hayesod on a green light. Drivers don't always slow down to see if the coast is clear. Many of them just whiz past, and heaven help any pedestrian without fast reflexes.
Barriers at a bus stop on Keren Hayesod Street(photo credit: ERICA SCHACHNE)