Tel Aviv co-op lays on bus service on Shabbat
A new social initiative is underway in the Tel Aviv area, a communal bus line that will take its members from Ramat Gan and Givatayim to the beach in Tel Aviv.
Roy Schwartz is only 22 years old, but he is already making waves. The young activist cashed in his entire military pension and some personal savings to bring to life his fledgling social initiative which provides buses on Shabbat for the public in central Israel.
Schwartz knows from experience that waiting for the politicians to tackle the issue is not productive. As a result he started a cooperative that operates buses under the name "And Yet It Moves" (a phrase attributed to Galileo Galilei).
The cooperative saw its very first bus service on Saturday, and is currently operating two buses, on the hour, from 9 am to 6 pm.
One bus leaves the Aluf Sade junction in Ramat Gan, and drives down the main streets of Ramat Gan and Givatayim picking up members of the collective until it reaches the Carmelite bus station by the seaside in Tel Aviv. Concurrently, another bus leaves the Carmelite station and does the opposite route.
Roy says his collective does not amount to public transportation, rather it is merely a collective which allows its members to use its bus transport. The rides will be free for the next month, and will later cost nine shekels.
In order to ride the buses, passengers must sign up through the group's website, and pay a NIS 20 registration fee.
This system allows Schwartz to bypass regulations which restrict public transportation operators.
At 1:30 pm on Saturday, the first passenger got on the bus from Tel Aviv to Ramat Gan. His name is Eliran, 30: "It's rare and awesome to get on a bus on Saturday, I was very excited. I don’t have a car and without the bus I would have to take a cab, which is very expensive and makes you think twice."
A similar initiative operates in Jerusalem - the "Shabus" starts operating on Friday night and takes the members of its cooperative from the city center to Pisgat Ze'ev, and back through Talpiot, Beit HaKerem and the French Hill.
