Egged Secretariat has approved the assignment of special committee, that is tasked to suggest effective solutions for future Egged integration into ministry of transport program "smart transport by demand"; introduction and developing utilization of electrical buses in public transportation system; improvement of mobile application and user experience; introduction of advanced ticketing systems, including cellular ones; cyber protection; development of transportation demand analyzing systems, allowing prediction of future demand and real-time responding; implementing flexible routes planning system based on real-time demands; reduction of average travel times; rationalization of designated public transportation lanes utilization; development of safety, security and cost reduction technologies.
The committee will consist of business development, information systems, public transportation, maintenance and economy specialists. According to the plan, the pilot project of "transportation on demand" will be launched in Jerusalem and another city (to be defined later). The plan had already been generally approved by ministry of finance. The project will be implemented in two stages: at first, 35 vehicles will operate during three months in designated regions (mentioned above). The number of participants will be limited to 9000 people. The project will be monitored by two different technological service providers in order to compare different technological solutions and choose those most effective among them.
At the second stage, after careful analyzes of all the collected data during the first stage, it is proposed to increase the amount of vehicles participating in project to 70, also the areas of operation will be reevaluated. It is highly possible the limit of signed up passengers will be increased too, as a result of reevaluating the targeted audience.
The results of the pilot project will define future public smart transportation on demand in Israel, including tariffs, coverage, number of vehicles, etc. Currently the pilot program launch depends on final governmental approval.