06.01.2012                      11.Tewet. 5772

ÖPNV in Jerusalem:

Jerusalem's public transport system as metaphor for Israel in 2012

The buses may have stopped functioning properly, but Jerusalem's light rail proves that coexistence is possible.

A young ultra-Orthodox man with a long black beard and flowing black coat got on an Egged bus this week in a relatively secular neighborhood of Jerusalem. He quickly looked up and down the bus. It was late and there were few passengers, and he sighed in relief upon spotting three empty adjacent seats. He sat down, placing beside him his attache case and, on the seat opposite, his wide-brimmed hat wrapped in a dark plastic bag against the rain.
As the driver halted at stops for other passengers, the man looked up anxiously as a few travelers stepped on, huddled together against the cold. He quickly averted his eyes when a woman passed down the aisle, seating herself farther down the bus. The buffer zone he had created around him remained inviolate….