The First Hybrid Town in Israel
Just park and go
Petah Tikva went down in Israel’s history as the first village in Israel, the place were scholars turned into farmers. Today, Petah Tikva is poised to be the first city in Israel to allow free parking for hybrid cars.
This week the municipality of Petah Tikva decided to pass a by-law that will allow owners of hybrid cars to steer free of parking meters, and live without the constant fear that the traffic police might be waiting for them.
In order to make sure that no polluters enjoy a free ride (or in this case, a free park). Traffic officers in Petah Tikva will be handed a list of all hybrid car models sold in Israel. That way they’ll be able to distinguish the green cars from the rest.
The city’s officials hope that the free parking passes will serve as an incentive that might convince potential car buyers to purchase lower-emission cars. While they know they might lose a bit of income from parking meters and fines, the city believes that it will lead to quality of life going up, and with it the city’s revenue.
In the last few years, Israel has come up with several incentives to keep cars green, igniting a mini green driving revolution. What started off with a decrease of 45% on the sales tax for hybrid cars, was followed by a higher tax on gas guzzlers. While these may seem minor financial changes, they have done their part. If 4 years ago only 7 hybrid cars were seen on Israel’s streets, today the number is over 5,000 and keeps rising.
Photo attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dougletterman/ / CC BY 2.0
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One Comment:
The real change is just around the corner. Electric cars with no tail-pipes at all, far better than the Hybrid, which takes the same gas, just less, but pollutes nevertheless. mid 2011 we will have 35 thousand EV’s taken up by all major corporations via the leasing companies. Then we will see a true decrease in pollution
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