Channel 12 News (Sorry, Rabbi Eliyahu) is reporting that Minister of Transportation Miri Regev is advancing a plan to lessen the number of driving lessons required by students looking to get a drivers license. 

Minister of Transportation Miri Regev announced today that she is changing policy and from now on, actually from October 1, 2021, all new driver's licenses to be given out will no longer need to be renewed every 10 years but will be valid until the age of 70. From 70to 80 the license will need to be renewed every 5 years and from 80 every two years.

When drivers in Israel accumulate enough "points" on their license, by getting speeding tickets and/or other traffic violations, they are required to attend a "motorized driving" course. A refresher course, to remind him of the rules of the road. Maybe it is a bit of a punishment, but anyone who got so many points is also assumed to need a refresher course to get up to date with the rules of the road, fill in any gaps, etc.

These courses are generally operated by organizations that bid for the right to give these courses. They are generally not internal to the "DMV ", but contracted out.

So it seems that these people running the courses were offering (in some locations) separate courses for women and separate courses for women. The problem seemed to be that the courses for men were far more frequent than the courses for women, and women were being turned away from taking their necessary refresher courses until a course could be arranged.

As an aside, perhaps that means there are less women needing these refresher courses than men - i.e., women are generally better drivers than men?

Back on point, a womens rights organization appealed to the Comptrollers office. Dina Zilber initially responded that such courses are to be stopped and the State can only offer courses open to everybody. Now Avihai Mandelblit has submitted to the Minister of Transportation (both outgoing Yisrael Katz and incoming Betzalel Smotritch) that such separate courses are to be stopped. In his letter he says that if a group of people get together independently and put together a course for just men or women that would be fine, but it cannot be offered by the operators of the course.

I guess that means that if, let's say, a course is open to 20 people at a time and someone puts together 20 men who need the course to all register for the same course with the result being that this course is only attended by men, that would be fine. The operators cannot offer the course and advertise the course as a men-only course.

The haredi community is upset about this, again blaming Mandelblit and Zilber for causing women to stay away as women wont go to a mixed course and they'll simply just not renew the license rather than sit in a mixed-gender course.

It is a shame that courses cannot be tailored to the needs of local communities. I don't know if there is anything wrong with this type of course specifically being gender-mixed, personally I see nothing wrong with it, but if a community has needs, and if we want them to integrate into society somewhat, it behooves us to come to them, somewhat, and make it accessible on their terms, to a certain extent.

That being said, the way the Haredi community is going so extreme in so many ways nowadays is disturbing and one thing continues to lead to another. The Comptroller office opposing it isn't going to stop the community from getting more extreme - it might even have the opposite effect and somehow continue to push the extremism along as it then becomes a fight and the haredi community does not often back down when they feel their lifestyle is being attacked. While I get that the law does not allow the State to fund or sponsor gender-separate events that are not religious in nature, and while I think the Haredi community needs to tone down their increasing extremism a bit, I wish there were a way for local communities to be serviced in ways appropriate to them.

With driving teachers being on the road more than anybody else, it seems they could be made good use of in keeping the roads safe. The City of Rishon Letzion has drafted 120 drivers to assist in keeping the roads safe by appointing them to the status of "traffic observers". While they are out on the roads these driving instructors will keep an eye on other drivers and report any dangerous driving to a Whatsapp group that will then be sent to a city hotline and will be dealt with.
 source: Israel Hayom

Obviously this sounds like a pretty good idea. And, if you are driving crazily because you do not see any police around, be aware that now any driving instructor, or maybe even other people if this gets expanded, can turn you in. And if it works, presumably other cities will adopt this program as well.

The only thing is, I would say in part that it is the driving instructors that are at least somewhat at fault for the situation on the roads - they have taught all these kids, and eventually adults, to drive, yet the drivers are horrible, speeding, passing dangerously, crossing bold lines, parking illegally, etc. Add that to some other factors regarding the way the lessons and testing works (not relevant here), and I would say the entire driving lessons system in Israel needs to be overhauled.

Besides for that, shouldn't these instructors be paying attention to their students and be teaching them, rather than paying attention to other drivers? Obviously they might notice something egregious that another driver does, but to be paying attention to other drivers and taking details while giving a lesson seems like it might create more problems.

You are driving 200kmph, when you are going to kivrei tzaddikim - it is like an airplane, so instead of 400, you are going 200. It isnt like going 200 instead of 100, but instead of 400 or 1000kmph you are going 200. In an airplane you could go 1000 or 2000 so we become like airplanes. When we go to Amuka or to Rabbeinu - all our cars become like airplanes. So we shouldn't have crashes between airplanes we drive at 200 instead of 1000 or even 400. So we are keeping the law, lmehadrin min hamehadrin min hamehadrin..

  -- Eliezer Berland instructing his students/followers in how to drive.. a few days ago some were arrested after being caught driving 200kmph while trying to catch up to Berland's car, on Highway 90, along with various other infractions...

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...