In a halacha "shiur" on Radio Kol BaRama, Rav Shai Tchan, head of the Beit Horaah Arzei Halevanon of Brooklyn,  discussed halachic issues of using Waze for navigation.

In Israel you are only allowed to drive through an intersection with a traffic light when the light is green. Even though there is a yellow (or some call it orange) light, that technuically has the status of red. If you drive through the intersection when the light already turned to yellow, it is as if you went through a red light and can get a ticket.

Studies have shown that most car accidents happen within five minutes, about a five mile radius, of the drivers home.

The Ministry of Transportation has issued a new directive that will require, as of August 1, 2021, all cars used in the transport of children below the age of 4, to be fitted with some sort of warning system to prevent children form being forgotten in the car.

Calcalist is reporting that at the end of January a series of new rules of the road will go into effect. And they are significant.

Chadashot Bet Shemesh is reporting that Minister of Transportation Betzalel Smotritch recognized National Road Safety Awareness Day by holding a Knesset meeting about road safety issues.

During the meeting, MK Moshe Abutbol (Shas) presented an original idea, out of the box as he described it, to encourage people to be safer drivers.

According to Abutbol, millions have been spent in the past decades to fight against bad driving and traffic accidents. Coming from an educational background, Abutbol says, there is a concept of "sur mera v'aseh tov" - turn away from bad and do good. We have been working with a point system for a long time - use a phone while driving and you get points on your record in additional to a fine, drive without a seatbelt and you get points, etc. Now it is time to change direction and try a more positive approach.

MK Abutbol suggested that we should take a few million shekels and buy 20 new cars with that money. These 20 cars would then be raffled off among all Israeli residents that did not get a single traffic report during the previous year.

This would be similar to insurance companies lowering rates to drivers with good records.

Obviously this would be in addition to many other ideas being done on a day to day basis, such as improving the road infrastructure (Abutbol pointed to improvements in Bet Shemesh roads, specifically 38 and 10, that have lessened the number of road incidents as examples).

According to the report, Minister Smoritch appreciated the suggestion but said he prefers not giving out new cars but maybe Rav Kav cards instead, as he prefers less cars on the road and greater use of public transportation. Even if this specific suggestion is not implemented, the idea can be used in other ways by finding other positive ways to encourage drivers to drive safely.

So you might not get a free car by driving safely but hopefully they will come up with other benefits to encourage drivers with rewards. Or, with the government still in flux with no end in sight at this point, it does not seem unlikely that someone else will soon be Minister of Transportation and maybe the next one will like this idea and we will get the shot at a new car!

The Iryah of Bet Shemesh has announced that they will be increasing enforcement and supervision for public safety around the city, for the safety and security of the residents

As of November 1, 2019, there will be a mobile photography unit in operation around town for the city supervisors that will be documenting traffic and parking violations, concentrating on a series of more problematic streets listed below. Reports will be filed and sent to the automobile owners directly.
The list of streets include:

• Herzl
• Hanasi
• Mordei Hagetaot
• Derech Yitzchak Rabin
• Hashiva
• HaAliyah
• Yigal Alon
• Hacharash
• Ben Zvi
• Nahal Kishon
• Yehuda Ben zeev
• Levi Eshkol
• Harav Herzog
• Nahal Tzeelim
• Rashi
• Maapilei Egoz
• Nahal Dolev
• Yechezkel Hanavi
• Rambam

As always, with such a warning from the city or without, drive safely, park safely. Especially with the winter approaching, and with it the bad weather (hopefully), it becomes even more important to drive safely

I think Israel's creativity and willing to adopt new ideas in trying to improve road safety is cool and admirable.

After Tel Aviv recently announced the installation, on a trial basis for now, of crossing lights installed at the edge of the street so pedestrians looking down at their phones will know when it is safe to cross the street, now the City of Ashqelon has announced the installation of 3d crosswalks.

The 3d "zebra" crosswalk is painted in a way to give the illusion that it is raised off the ground, thus causing drivers to slow down cautiously as it appears to them as an obstacle in the road.

Such crosswalks are in use in a few towns around the world, such as in Iceland and India.

very cool, but I have not seen stats from those towns to know if it has worked or not. I will add that the video accompanying the i24News article does not show the drivers slowing down at all - they seem to speed right through the crosswalk. I think the video could have been made better, as cool as it looks.


very cool. I hope it works, and if it does, it should be implemented all around Israel... whatever makes the roads a bit safer!

Sometimes we get so caught up in our phones that we become oblivious to everyone and everything around us. This unfortunately happens while we are driving, and it is very dangerous. It also happens while we are walking down the street - we bump into things, we failt o notice traffic patterns and crossing lights, we nearly bump into things, we become obstructions for other people, and it can also be dangerous as pedestrians on their phones have been hit by cars as they step into a street not noticing oncoming vehicles. It has happened to me occasionally and I have seen it happen to other people.

The City of Tel Aviv is trying something new to help to phone zombies among us and keep them safely moving across streets. They have installed led light strips at a number of major intersections, on a trial basis for now.

With people regularly looking down at their phones, the will notice the led light at the edge of the crosswalk indicating that they should cross the street. If the trial is deemed a success, the led lighting on the street edge will be expanded to other intersections across the city.
source: The Jewish Press

This is a fabulous solution to an ever-increasing problem. We still need solutions for the distracted drivers but at least this will help the distracted walkers.

It seems that in Tom's River there have been a number of car accidents involving pedestrians wearing dark clothing, i.e. black hats, black pants and black jackets and coats, walking in the roads in the dark. It has become serious enough that the local rabbonim have had to issue a warning, calling it pikuach nefesh, with instructions for the community members to wear reflective materials and not just walk around in the dark wearing dark clothing.

I am not sure why people don't realize this on their own. I have complained about it as well, not in Tom's River but in some areas in Israel where the roads are not lit well. Pedestrians wearing dark can be very difficult to see. Pedestrians generally do not have the perspective of a driver and perhaps do not realize how difficult it can sometimes be to see them.

Please make sure, to the best of your ability, you are visible on the roads. Nobody wants to get hurt or to hurt anybody else. It is the last thing anybody needs. And it is pikuach nefesh.

The government has been trying to find ways to deal with the danger of electric bikes, especially of kids (though not just) riding electric bikes dangerously and often in ways that are illegal.

The government is working on passing a bunch of regulations for the riding of electric bikes. In the meantime, Minister of Transportation has come up with a novel idea that does not need passage of law or any government vote. Katz has ordered his ministry to lower the minimum age for taking the theory test, the first step towards getting a drivers license, from 16 years and 3 months of age to 15.5 years.

Katz figures that because one can only start riding electric bikes, legally, from the age of 16, having them studying for and taking the theory test of general road safety will give these young men and women a lot of important knowledge about safety before they begin riding electric bikes.
source: Kol Hai News and Haredim10

It doesn't sound like a bad idea. It sounds logical even. It seems like this would cause these kids to start their driving lessons a bit younger, which is also fine... The biggest problem with it, that I can see, is that kids don't wait until 16 before riding the electric bikes. I regularly see kids much younger than 16 riding them. Without the enforcement of all the other rules, this is not going to really do much.

It does seem a bit funny to move everything younger in order to try to make things safer. It seems logic would dictate making the age older so the kids are more mature...