עיצוב מדיניות הקצאת משאבים לתחבורה ציבורית ברשויות המקומיות בישראל

The resource allocation policy for complex public service systems requires transparency and often, a balance between the central and local governments. A clear and agreed-upon policy reduces tensions, minimizes effectiveness gaps, and enable stargeting resource allocation to achieve continuous improvement of the public services.Tools for systematic resource allocation aimed at achieving overall effectiveness have not been sufficiently developed. This article demonstrates methods to address this challenge in the context of a complex public service, public transportation (PT) in Israel.Israel’s government decided decades ago to transfer PT authorities to the local government. However, for a number of reasons, this decision has yet to be implemented and the central government continues to allocate PT resources.PT service brings people closer to metropolitan areas and improves access to employment, cultural and consumption opportunities. It thereby affects economic well-being while serving purposes such as mobility, environment, real estate value, urban design and more. The value attributed to these goals is contingent on the point of view of the actor involved, be it a user, PT operator, locality, or the general public. At times,these goals can compete or even contradict each other. Decision-makers and experts face an immense challenge in balancing different perspectives as well as national versus local considerations when they allocate resources. This difficulty constitutes a barrier to creating the discourse and transparency essential when public resources are involved.This article presents a new method that combines the well-known and accepted methods of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Analytical Hierarchy Process(AHP) - DEAHP - to formulate and analyze the effectiveness of resource allocation policy. DEAHP uses the characteristics of the locality and characteristics of the service available to its residents to measure effectiveness applying DEA. Then a resource allocation policy is formulated using AHP. A resource allocation indicator is calculated for each locality, showing whether the PT services available can adequately meet the level of the services needed according to the formulated policy. Using this measure,decision-makers can assess the policy and the degree to which it improves overall effectiveness. DEAHP is innovative in that the policy is formulated in conjunction with effectiveness measurement. It enables a balanced and transparent allocation of PT resources while also supporting the creation of competition to achieve effectiveness among the service operators that currently function as regional monopolies. The process of designing policy using DEAHP was demonstrated in a workshop attended by stakeholders from the central and local governments, representatives of PT operators, and experts. The positive feedback received from the participants indicates the method’s potential to effectively allocate PT resources using flexible management tools.