Ministry of Transport and Road Safety of Israel wants to make our public transportation inefficient and hard to use:


To make me easier to translate this to english, here is a Google translation of the equivalent article at Ynet.

That seems quite odd that they would do something like that. Especially if there are still many passengers who pay in cash.

With public transit here (MARTA) I think they work around the issue a little bit by allowing passengers to still pay on the bus directly with cash, but you must have exact change as the driver doesn't handle the money collected and cannot provide change. The money is inserted into a machine by the driver when you enter the bus. I think that would be the compromise to "increase safety" that they seek without doing away with cash completely. The disadvantage with cash in that situation is you cannot get a transfer from the bus to the train without the transit card. However, a card can be purchased and loaded at any train station with cash or online if you want and every bus eventually goes to a train station. The card is also indefinitely reloadable as well once you have one ($2). It also helps that it is only one fare cost regardless of where you go or if you take the bus or train. Also you can purchase an unlimited fare for one week if you like. People talk trash about MARTA here all the time, but I like it a lot. Just stay off of the east-west (blue or green) line unless you absolutely have to get on it.

The main cause is that our government is daydreaming aloud to phase out cash altogether. They know this will never happen, but they try to force what they can to more "trackable" payment methods, one little thing at a time

In public bus service, the first thing they done years ago, is disable all discounted ticket options (except for eldery people) for direct cash purchase - You can't buy 2-way ticket in cash for example. The only way to ride 2 ways with discount is using a card ("Oyster" equivalent) which is personal with identifying information

589 In your case, i dont see why the driver should handle the money at all ? Why can't the people insert the cash into the machine themselves ?

Buses in London no longer handle cash, most people pay with Oyster cards, although you can buy tickets at roadside machines in some places.

In Birmingham, where I used to drive, there are cash chutes where the passenger has to drop the exact money into it, the driver does not handle cash (it's actually a disciplinary offence for them to do so, people have been sacked for it). It mostly works well, although there are occasional problems with visitors to the area.

The main local bus company here in Aberdeen (First Group) use the same system. I've not been aware of any issues since I've lived here (2015).

589 In your case, i dont see why the driver should handle the money at all ? Why can't the people insert the cash into the machine themselves ?

The problem arises when the passenger doesn't have the correct change. We've had drivers dragged out of the cab and beaten senseless for less (Birmingham, where I used to drive). I've personally been punched in the face and spat at when I've told people I can't give change. One reason I got out of driving and moved into a job monitoring the onboard CCTV.

Haven't heard of any cases of violence against drivers here. Are there measures implemented to defend the drivers in such cases ?

Why the cash accepting machines can't be made to give change ?

Haven't heard of any cases of violence against drivers here. Are there measures implemented to defend the drivers in such cases ?

Why the cash accepting machines can't be made to give change ?

They have plastic screens up on the cab doors, but they're very flimsy and they have holes in them so you can hear people speak, which are enough to spit through 

They could modify the machines to give change, but they don't. Knowing the way senior management think, I'm guessing it's because they don't want to spend the money it would take 

Over here there aren't any such screens, the driver is not enclosed in any way from the rest of the bus

In contrast, there are some "buses" for military use which aren't even proper buses, they are trucks with seats installed in the box. The entrance to the box is separate from the cabin. Those aren't used in civil transportation

Over here there aren't ticket selling machines in buses, but there are in train stations for train tickets. Those accept cash (and give change), credit card, and "oyster"-equivalent card. However they dont accept 200 ILS bills (the biggest bill of the four, which is the main target for counterfeiting)

Over here there aren't any such screens, the driver is not enclosed in any way from the rest of the bus

Ye gods, on some of the routes we ran, the driver would have no chance in a bus like that..! I remember an incident that happened to a colleague not long after I'd started with the company. He was driving the last bus of the night, and it stopped short of the usual terminus by around 5 miles or so, which was the closest point to the depot.

He'd arrived at the point where he finished service, and there were still three passengers on the bus, at the back. He turned to them and told them, politely, that he was now finished for the night and they would have to get off. Remember that this bus clearly stated on the destination blind at the front that it finished short of its usual terminus, and he would have informed all passengers getting on of this as well, in case they hadn't seen the blind.

The three guys at the back, who were all very rowdy and probably drunk into the bargain, came to the cab and said "We want to go to XXXXXXXXX" (being a point a couple of miles further down the normal route). The driver told them, again very politely, that he could not go any further as he was now out of service. The response was again, "We want to go to XXXXXXXXX". Again he told them he was finished for the day.

Whereupon they wrenched the cab door open, dragged him out, and beat him senseless, breaking three of his ribs into the bargain. He was off work for several months, in fact he never did return, and the last I heard had not worked again. By the way, he was a very well built man, who could normally take care of himself, but against these guys he had no chance.

I should emphasise that this incident was a rare one, I don't want to give the impression drivers got beaten up every day, but it indicates the sort of thing that can happen in certain areas if the driver has no protection from some elements of society.

This was, by the way, before the days when all the buses were equipped with CCTV, so there was no evidence to be able to identify the offenders. It was one of the reasons I decided to move from driving to a job dealing with the onboard CCTV systems.