With Israel's roads overwhelmed, infrastructure lagging and traffic worsening, the most affected city is paving a new path. But will it work?
Tel Aviv, already ranked among the most congested cities in the world, is rolling out a new 30 km/h speed limit across large parts of the city in a bid to ease traffic, reduce accidents, and encourage residents to walk, bike, and use public transportation.
If you've tried to drive anywhere in Tel Aviv lately, you've probably found yourself inching forward through construction zones, watching your Waze arrival time slip further away, and wondering why you didn't just stay home. The city routinely places near the top of global congestion surveys -- behind only Manila, Bogotá, Jakarta and São Paulo.
Now, municipal officials believe that slowing down may actually help the city move faster.
Tel Aviv began lowering its speed limits to 30 km/h at the end of 2025 as part of a major road-safety and traffic-management initiative. The city announced in late November that the new 30 km/h limit would first take effect in central and west Tel Aviv starting in December, with plans to expand the policy across most residential and secondary streets by the end of 2026. The move is intended to improve safety, reduce severe accidents and support a shift toward walking, cycling and public transit.
"Cities that took down speed limits saw 18 percent fewer accidents," Tel Aviv Deputy Mayor Meytal Lehavi told JNS in an interview in early December. "In Tel Aviv we have a walking and riding way of living. At under 30 km per hour, you can see everybody, and it is especially important in areas where there is no bike lane."
The new limit follows a successful pilot on several streets and will be expanded to much wider zones. Lehavi said the city is coupling the policy with a public awareness campaign urging drivers to ease off the gas.
"We start by speaking and saying and asking," she said. "But if it doesn't come by public relations, it will come by hurting people in their pockets," she added, referring to traffic enforcement.
Tel Aviv is also preparing to introduce a congestion surcharge for vehicles entering the city. The Electra company has been selected to build the needed infrastructure.
Tel Aviv's population of just under 500,000 nearly triples during the workday, as some 600,000 commuters pour in to shop and work. About 100,000 arrive by train; the rest come by car, overwhelming the city's roads.
Lehavi said the recently launched light rail line from Bat Yam to Petach Tikva "did something for the city," and two additional lines are planned for 2028 and 2030. A future metro system is also in development.
A national crisis on the roads
Across Israel, congestion has surged. According to the State Comptroller's Office, more than four million cars in a country with a population of 10 million now crowd the country's roads. Transport Minister Miri Regev is promoting a multibillion-shekel proposal to add a second elevated level to Road 6, Israel's major north-south toll highway.
According to her ministry, the project would add 48 kilometers of new lanes -- including carpool and public transport lanes -- to help relieve chokepoints.
But transportation analysts say the plan misses the root problem.
"We are car-dependent and there are limited alternatives," said Eran Ben Elia, a professor of smart mobility and travel behavior at Ben-Gurion University. "We are decades behind in investing in modern public transportation infrastructure. Our cities were not built for this amount of traffic. If there were a decent alternative, people would use it."
He noted that Jerusalem's light rail has successfully reduced central traffic, and that the two additional lines now under construction will improve conditions further. But in greater Tel Aviv, where many residents live in car-dependent suburbs, alternatives remain limited.
Ben Elia said only coordinated national planning -- not individual municipal efforts -- can solve Israel's transportation crisis.
"It feels like they're running an orchestra without a conductor," he said. "We are firing in all directions and that's the result."
Ministerial plan
Israel's Ministry of Transportation and Road Safety said it has adopted a broad plan to reduce traffic congestion and improve the quality of life for Israelis.
"The ministry is currently promoting a series of major projects worth tens of billions of shekels, designed to address traffic congestion in the immediate, medium and long term," a spokesman for the ministry said in a statement. "Israel Railways continues to expand and upgrade its railway lines, including increasing the frequency of trains during peak hours, to ease congestion on the roads and provide an efficient alternative to public transportation between cities."
The ministry said it is working to develop more public transportation routes to help public transport operate more efficiently as well as promote the metro in Tel Aviv and expand the light rail network in the metropolitan areas of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beersheva.
The ministry's spokesman told JNS it also has long-term plans for a major rail project called "Connecting Israel," which he called Transportation Minister Miri Regev's "flagship project."
"The railway network from Kiryat Shmona to Eilat is gaining momentum," he said. "It is a 300-kilometer-long railway network that will connect all corners of the country and reduce congestion on the roads."
All of this is expensive, but the spokesman said the ministry is committed to a solution.
"In public transportation, service additions worth 250 million shekels and the promotion of metropolitan authorities are being promoted," he wrote. "Continued investment in efficient and accessible public transportation throughout the country is a central part of our vision, which aims to create a balanced and just transportation system that will support equitable urban development."