Author: Galya Globerman

As pedestrians, we may hate them; as riders, we may love them. Visitors to the Old City are constantly annoyed by the golf carts because they come at pedestrians’ expense. However, following the golf cart tour, we have a newfound appreciation for this vehicle and its role. Not to mention that riding them is a really fun way to experience the City.

 

The Old City of Jerusalem comprises a network of narrow alleyways and stairs where fully mobile locals can reach different areas with relative ease and tourists can happily meander between historic and religious sites. But what is functional and fun to some can be quite challenging and frustrating to others. How do senior residents and individuals with disabilities get around in the Old City? How do they reach clinics, purchase groceries, and interact in their communities?

Urban Clinic Internship Course student Merav Horovitz Stein, who works in the Old City as part of her job at the Jerusalem Intercultural Center, noticed an ad hoc solution: electric golf carts were being purchased by residents and used as 'taxis' for locals and tourist. 
 

 

Merav describes how golf carts operate in the Old City.

 

Merav invited the students and faculty of the Internship Course to experience the golf-cart-taxis early on a  Friday morning in December. Hurdling around, we realized the enormous potential of these vehicles as public transport - they are clean, quiet, and fast! But, without clear standards, they can become a hazard: there is no one-way system, and in the narrow streets, they could easily block passage and collide with pedestrians and each other. Operators also told us that they receive traffic fines when they ferry passengers outside the walls of the Old City (to health clinics, for example) and park the vehicles outside their homes for charging. 

 

Learning about the challenges drivers face.

 

Credit form left to right: Alla Barhoum, Eman Ansari

 

Merav presented her project in Fall 2021, and new student Haim Yamin asked to come aboard, bringing his work experience as project manager for the Jerusalem Development Company Moriah, specializing in the Old City. With Merav receiving a Moelis Fellowship to work alongside Haim, the team mapped the routes, assessed needed infrastructure changes, and presented their work plan to six senior officials from the Jerusalem municipality and the Ministry of Transport (see screenshot below). 'This fits perfectly with our strategy to make the Old City car-free,' said the director of the government-municipal company for developing the Old City.  Haim and Merav were asked to expand the project to include connections to the Light Rail, estimate the number of cars that could be removed, recommend parking solutions, and develop management options. 'Once you can do that,' said the political advisor to the Minister of Transport, ‘we show the Minister and the Mayor how golf carts as public transport can help improve life in the Old City of Jerusalem.'
 

Screenshot from the meeting, January 25th, 2022.