Mount Zion Parking Lot
Entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem has been nigh near impossible as of late due to the changes in the traffic rules. The Jerusalem Municipality decided that private cars (except for local residents) could not enter the Old City.
Whether this is a good idea or not is up for debate.
This of course made things very difficult for drivers in Jerusalem, as there was no where near enough convenient parking for people trying to get into the Old City or to the Kotel.
The Givati Parking lot is lot smaller these days ever since they discovered the palace underneath it.
And the Mamilla parking lot is excellent, but it can be a long walk if you are trying to reach the Jewish Quarter.
The Jerusalem Municipality finally did something very smart to handle this problem - they rezoned the Mount Zion parking lot.
For years, the Har Tzion parking lot had space for about 20 cars, and the rest was designated for buses. Lot of buses.
Yesterday when visiting the Old City, I decided to chance it and see if I could find parking on Mt. Zion. To my surprise, there were no buses parked there at all, and the entire parking lot was converted to parking for cars.
Rumor has it they are planning on building a multi-level parking lot on the site.
While 100 new parking spots may not be much for convenient access to the most important city in the world, it's better than the 20 we had before.
I'm happy to see that the Jerusalem Municipality made a positive change for Jerusalem drivers - something they haven't done in a long time.