This is in the end, the project may not take off at all. But the mystique of a subway in Tel Aviv is sure to continue. I recall my first night in Tel Aviv,way back in October, 1974, when after spending a couple of weeks riding the subways in Manhattan, I thought the underground passageway at the corner of Allenby and King George was the entrance to a subway system. Boy was I wrong!

Back then, buses were not the comfortable, air conditioned ones they are now. They were old Leyeland ones with wooden seats and bars on the windows.

At least some aspects of the city’s public transport system has changed, even if there are still no subways or light trains.

In other words, we are about to set off on the same path that effectively paralyzed Jerusalem for the better part of the last decade. After the trauma caused by building just one line of the planned light rail network, the residents and shopkeepers in that city raised such a fuss that it was decided to abandon light rail technology in favor of bus rapid transit (BRT), which is cheaper, quicker and less disruptive to the city, but functions just as well. Haifa decided to go with BRT at the outset, and their project has thus far been the most successful. Amman, Jordan is building a BRT system as well.

Why put residents of metropolitan Tel Aviv through the same agony that Jerusalem suffered, when chances are that sometime in the future a decision will be made to switch to BRT in any case?

In fact, things are already moving in this direction. After the Tel Aviv light rail project collapsed this year, resulting in the decision to nationalize the project, it has begun to dawn on our decision-makers that they have no plan whatsoever for alleviating traffic chaos in the near term, over the coming decade or so. Thus, a number of interim solutions have begun to take shape, including a reform of the bus system, building (and enforcing) a network of dedicated bus lanes, a couple of BRT lines (mainly outside of Tel Aviv proper) and setting up a metropolitan transit authority.

In the meanwhile, the officials involved are mainly busying themselves with mutual accusations and passing the buck. And that is the real reason for the persistent traffic jams – the dysfunctional political system and its inability to solve real problems.