Research Finds Israelis Wait for Public Transport for 14 Minutes

According to a report on Tuesday, research conducted by a public transportation app showed that people in Israel have to wait for about 14 minutes for a train or bus to arrive, on average.

The research said that even after the arrival of public transportation, Israelis remain at the top of the list in terms of the average distance traveled, which is quite a surprise, considering the size of the country.

Moovit

An app developed in Israel named Moovit was acquired in 2020 by Intel and it provides users with real-time information about public transportation. This includes both travel times and routes.

The company recently conducted research, which showed that the average time that people have to wait for public transportation is 14 minutes.

The survey comprised of 24 countries and Israel was somewhere in the middle of the rankings due to these timings.

However, it remained unclear as to why Moovit selected the 24 countries, even though the app is used by almost 3,500 passengers that are spread across a total of 112 countries.

The results

The researchers said that if the waiting time is five minutes or less for travelers for their mode of transportation, then they would consider it a positive experience.

According to Moovit, there are just 13% of the trips taken by Israelis on public transportation, which fit the said criteria.

The report further said that there are also 1 in 50 buses that do not arrive at all, which means that travelers only waste their time in waiting.

But, as mentioned earlier, the most surprising discovery was that the average distance traveled by Israelis on public transportation was on top of the list at 19 kilometers for every journey.

Reports said that this could be partially because winding and long routes are taken by a number of the bus lines.

More details

Moreover, some people have had to deal with longer commutes because of extensive failures in planning.

Plus, real estate prices have also skyrocketed, which means a lot of people are unable to get accommodation close to their place of work.

But, the data also did not take into consideration the fact that that most of the country does not have access to public transportation for about 25 hours every week, as the services are stopped for Shabbat.

The survey discovered that the problem that most users wanted to see fixed was that of long waiting times and other issues like prices, cleanliness and crowding are not that big of a problem.

The tech firm did not provide insight into the number of users who participated in the survey and it did not shed light on the methods it used for collecting the data about its users’ opinions.

The data from Moovit is obtained from the variety of information that users are offered, such as directions and guidance for trains, buses, city travel and micro mobility like bikes and scooters, along with ridesharing services, such as Uber, and light rails.

The app also caters to municipalities, cities and mass transit firms by providing them paid solutions for offering more mobility options.