Sheirut

Israel has this concept in public transportation known as a sheirut, or a "shared taxi" service. They follow the same route as the bus with which they share the number, but they only seat 10 people and they stop anywhere on the bus route.

I find these things really interesting. I don't QUITE see the point of them. I mean, yes, they come more frequently then buses and I suppose overall they probably make fewer stops. But is saving those few minutes really worth a whole other line of public transportation? They are very popular and going throughout the city, at least in Tel Aviv, the sheirut is always full.

The most curious thing about the sheirut, though, is something you would never find in the US. They cost the same as the bus, but you don't pay until you've sat down. Then everyone just passes up the money to the bus driver through the people sitting ahead of them. Its like this understood trust. The van driver trusts that once you sit down and open your wallet, you will pay. He doesn't bother to keep track, there's just an understanding that you will. No one has any qualms about passing up their money through the hands of 10 other people, because its just understood that everyone will honestly pass your money up and your change back down to you. As a tourist, its one way to almost intimately interact with the locals, all the hand to hand contact you make, people talking to you and they have no idea that you don't speak the language because you're part of this understanding, this trust between sheirut riders, and all they're really asking is for you to pass the fare. And, if you stumble upon a particularly polite Israeli, they might even say Toda!