Tel Aviv sidewalks

Bad: restaurants monopolize sidewalk space with their tables and chairs. Actually, this isn’t entirely bad – what’s bad is the sense of entitlement that the restaurant owners, employees and patrons take about the public sidewalk space. A table and chair placed on a sidewalk is, after all, in a thoroughfare meant for pedestrians, and if pedestrians need to get by, no one should be surprised if they do so by whatever means are necessary.

Worse (so much worse that it makes me vomit): cyclists and scooterists turn sidewalks into another lane of traffic, except with even fewer rules than the normal lanes. No Tel Aviv pedestrian is immune from the danger and the fear of a mounted maniac’s unpredictable careening. This sort of behavior is totally uncivilized and the offenders should be held accountable.