Isn’t Israel that bastion of, well, un-safeness? Isn’t it one horribly ferociously unsafe place for men, women and children?
Ha ha! Fooled ya again. It just ain’t so. All those front page stories about war and terrorism and strife? Well, they’re just front page stories. And getting on the bus is just another page 19 story in a big daily paper.
If you thought Israel was pretty cool because people still hitchhike here, well, Canadians will really have trouble resolving all that violence and figuring out why Israeli bus drivers still give change - something that young Canucks don’t even know used to be the norm in the Great White North.
Yes, you can get on any bus in Israel, give the driver a 50 or a 100 (and here we even have a 200 shekel note, worth about $55 Canadian) for the 5.70 fare (about $1.75) , and get your change with no questions asked. It’s simply part of the service. And the driver doesn’t drop the cash into a strongbox, he has a standard coin holder and keeps the bills in a special large wallet.
Did I say standard coin holder? Does anybody in Canada remember what those are?
On the Jerusalem #31 route, that's the driver's blue sleeve on the left, just above the change holder that has about $100 in change in it.
And, of course, regular riders in Israel can buy monthly passes with photo-ID, so that you just wave it at the driver and walk right on. They also sell multi-ride tickets that the driver will punch each time. Depending on the route, if you fork over cash for 8 rides, the ticket is good for 10. Buy 10, get two free.
For the past few years the buses are all equipped with a modern computer ticketing system. And if you get on an intercity bus and get off at an intermediate stop, the ticket is printed for that stop and the bus company downloads the data to find out who gets on where, buys what, and gets off where. Great for operational planning and marketing.
The computers allow bonuses for Israeli riders too. The bus from my town to Jerusalem (about 15 km distance) is only 6.60 shekels, and a city bus is another 5.60. But if I tell the driver I want a “continuation” ticket, I can go to the city then switch to a city bus to work or school for only 7.20. A big saving for commuters and encouragement to take the bus and not drive.
Public transportation, always good in Israel, has probably gotten better in the last 20 years. Back then, I remember buses as being crowded what seemed to be all the time.
But even in the sweltering heat of summer when the thermometer bounces close to 40 degrees and the humidity combines to try and melt you, taking the bus might have been uncomfortable, but it was rarely unpleasant.
Mothers with infants in strollers are always getting on through the back doors because they are wider. People more often than not jump to help lift the strollers on the bus. In the “old days” and still today, if you got on through the back door and the bus was too packed to reach the driver, you simply passed your bus ticket or cash up to the front, and the driver would punch the ticket or send the receipt and change back, hand by hand.
I was always amazed that change for a 50 could pass a dozen times hand-t0-hand, and make it back to you each time.
With more modern buses and wider isles, the passing doesn’t happen as often these days. But anytime somebody tries to tell me Israel “isn’t safe”, I wonder why Canadians haven’t been able to get change on a bus in decades while we still take it for granted here and bus drivers don’t feel threatened.