Post a bombing
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life
The #74 bus route
And now, it’s late morning in Jerusalem and the world looks a little different, despite the newspaper headlines or lack thereof. It wasn’t quite the first thing I thought of when I woke up, and it took some Facebooking and blog rolling before my memory was jogged. And even then, it was on to the business of the day, work and food shopping and kids, and putting some pizza dough in the fridge for tonight’s dinner, and heading out for a long overdue coffee date with a dear friend. Out on the street, buses whizzed by on Derech Hevron, including the now infamous Egged #74 which is one of my regular buses, and was hit in yesterday’s sidewalk bomb. I don’t take buses on a regular basis, only when I need to head into downtown Jerusalem, which is pretty infrequently. I’m lucky that way.
What else on the street? Banners and signs about tomorrow’s marathon; signs of another weekend, from the challot piled in the bakeries to the gleaming displays of fruit and vegetables. Everyone’s going about their business, working, talking, buying, being. And wondering what, if anything, is next.
Terror returns to Jerusalem
Photo from Ynet earlier today
At about 3:10 PM, my daughter Merav called me on my cell phone from school. Someone had said there was a bomb and did I know anything. I quickly checked the Internet. Nothing. But I already could tell that wasn’t the case. All the way from across town, I heard a boom. It could have been a firecracker or a garbage truck but it was followed by more simultaneous sirens than I’ve heard since the murderous days of the Second Intifada.
I kept pressing refresh on Haaretz and Ynet in Hebrew until eventually the story appeared (it was a good ten minutes more before the English language sites picked it up). I began reporting to Merav who, I could hear in the background, was forwarding the news to her classmates.
What’s the first thing you do when the news is bad? Tell your wife? I decided to spare her, at least until there were more details.
The phone rang. It was from the U.S. A friend had already heard the news. Soon Jody was calling to me. She couldn’t reach Merav on her cellphone. All the lines were down. I quickly calmed her: I’d already spoken to Merav, everything was fine.
Of the hundreds of thousands of people in Jerusalem, what are the chances that it would be one of our kids who’d be involved in a terror attack? That’s one reason why Israelis get on with their lives so quickly. But we have another experience. In 2002, our cousin Marla Bennett was killed in the Hebrew University cafeteria bombing. Every attack is personal now.
It’s been nearly 7 years since the last bus bombing in Jerusalem. And this wasn’t a bus attack per se, nor was it a suicide bomber. That doesn’t make it feel any better. Even worse, our son’s bus from Tel Aviv stops every night at that same kiosk near where the bomb was placed. He called and asked if I could pick him up tonight. Merav decided to walk home.
Will this be a return to the early 2000’s? I doubt it. But it’s a painful reminder that we are not at peace, and it may be a long time before the threats around us are gone.
What time is the next bus?
Going solar?
For riders of public transportation, it’s a common scenario: you arrive at the bus stop and there’s no one else there. Did you just miss the bus? If so, when will the next one be along? Up until now, there’s been no way to know.
That’s set to change now that a new international tender has been issued by the Israel National Roads Company (INRC). The aim is to have digital signs linked to GPS transmitter aboard the buses (and eventually the Jerusalem light rail) that will feed passengers real-time information to waiting passengers.
This development is not particularly revolutionary: similar systems have been running for years in many European countries. But the Israeli proposal has a uniquely Middle Eastern twist: the digital signs will be solar powered.
That makes eminent sense in a country with abundant sunshine (too much, in fact, given the perpetual state of drought Israel has fallen into during recent years).
The Jerusalem Post reports that the tender calls for 100 intercity bus stations to be outfitted with the solar screens. That’s not a huge number: the INRC maintains a total of 3,000 bus stops across the country. But it’s a start. And going green puts Israel at the forefront of technological advancements in the field.
The tender goes one step even further: the signs are supposed to have buttons where passengers can switch languages – great for a country that comprises immigrants from dozens on countries who may not speak Hebrew perfectly – and even an audio option for the blind to have arrival information read out.
Now all we have to do is hope that that signs tell us that our next bus is right around the corner. I’m not sure I want to know I have a 40-minute wait…
Nostalgia Sunday – Egged Bus
Filed under: design, General, History and Culture, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture
My car broke down irretrievably last year and, as a result, I have been taking the bus quite a bit. In-between cursing public transportation, cultivating nascent misanthropic tendencies, and swearing that next week I am absolutely buying a car — bank balance be damned — I also find time for nostalgic reverie. Or is that better termed a bad flashback? Let’s face it, today’s buses are far, far better than the non-air conditioned, bouncing, bulky tin boxes on wheels of yesteryear. My coccyx bone aches just thinking about it. Ouch.
Transportation cooperative Egged also remembers those days, (with more fondness than do I), and maintains a museum in Holon, the niche museum capital of Israel. The display is also online with a gallery of photos, posters, video clips (like this one of the first Egged tour of Sinai) and articles about Egged’s history. For example, this photo of a few of the drivers who joined the Egged cooperative in 1933.
And here’s the Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv! No, not that one. This was located at 1 Rothschild Boulevard.
And then there was Tel Aviv’s Bauhaus design bus station that was Egged’s main base until the new bus station opened in 1993.
The classic 1970s Egged bus designed by British Leyland:
Here’s the 1980s upgrade, designed by Mercedes — introducing air-conditioning!
Egged’s bus for the new millennium. In a classic “greenwashing” move, Egged made a very big deal about how this model was environmentally friendly. Why? Because of the green paint? Oh well, at least they’re roomy and the air-conditioning works well.
.
And now, introducing the new bus for 2009, the Saar-31. I bet the air conditioning is super-sonic. Ahhh…
As with all Egged buses, the Saar 31 is manufactured and assembled locally by the Haargaz company. The design of this bus, says Haargaz, is the most advanced of its kind. But what I like is their video clip about the history of Haargaz-constructed buses in Israel – to the tune of Born to Be Wild. So rock on… and leave the driving to us!
The Golden Hour
Filed under: General, Life, Medical Breakthroughs, Technology, War
If there’s one thing Israeli medics are good at, it’s first aid. As a result of battlefield experience over 60 years of war, chovshim, as they are called in the IDF, have learned how to treat serious injuries with few supplies under heavily pressure.
The lessons learned on the battlefield prove invaluable for major civilian emergencies as well, such as the tragic bus crash outside Eilat. Sixty Russian tourists on a junket to Eilat plunged off the side of a narrow, twisty road to a ravine nearly 200 feet deep. Twenty four people died, and the rest were all in serious condition, as of Tuesday night. While many were killed on the spot, several died of the injuries they sustained later on,
What if the injured had gotten treatment sooner? Could they have been saved? Maybe, say doctors who advocate the Golden Hour theory that even severely injured people have a higher chance of surviving if they get substantial, emergency room style treatment within the first hour after they’re injured. The problem is getting them to the treatment site especially under difficult field conditions, such as when a bus is stuck at the bottom of a ravine, with no path or road to the top, and no place for a helicopter to land. Not to mention that moving the injured often makes things worse, exacerbating the problem and making treatment at the facility more complicated.
There is a solution on the horizon, though. As it happens, I spoke to Dr. Eran Shenkar today, a battlefield medical expert who has helped develop a new concept vehicle for remote medical care, called the MedUAV. Interviewing Dr. Shenkar and others at the Fisher Institute in Herzliya in preparation for an article for 21C (look for it soon!), I had no idea how relevant the conversation would be just a few hours later.
The MedUAV, says Dr. Shenkar, can essentially bring the emergency room to the field. Developed for the battlefield, it’s also ideal for civilian emergencies in difficult to reach circumstances. As a remote UAV, it’s smaller, cheaper, and more compact than a helicopter meaning it can go places a helicopter can’t, and, in times of war, there’s nobody to shoot down. The MedUAV can land or take off vertically, meaning it’s ideal for use in, say, a narrow ravine where there’s no place for a helicopter to land. The MedUAV can carry sophisticated equipment equipped with Wi-fi sensors, allowing a field medic to hook up a patient and allow a doctor to provide remote treatment, by giving instructions to the medic. And, after it delivers its supplies, the MedUAV can transport patients back to the medical tent, where they can be transported to hospitals by helicopter.
It’s a great solution to the golden hour problem and when it’s ready for field use, chances are good that tragedies like today’s bus crash will end up being a bit less tragic, with perhaps many more of the injured being restored to good health more quickly.
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