Transportation in Israel is based mainly on private motor vehicles and bus service and an expanding railway network. A lack of inland waterways and the small size of the country make air and water transport of only minor importance in domestic transportation, but they are vitally important for Israel's international transport links. Demands of population growth, political factors, the Israel Defense Forces, tourism and increased traffic set the pace for all sectors, being a major driver in the mobility transition towards railways and public transit while moving away from motorized road transport. All facets of transportation in Israel are under the supervision of the Ministry of Transport and Road Safety.
Private transportation
Roads
Israel's road network spans of roads, of which are classified as freeways. The network spans the whole country.
Route 6, the Trans Israel Highway, starts just east of Haifa down to the outskirts of Beer Sheva, about . Route 1 between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and Route 2 between Tel Aviv and Haifa are well maintained highways.
Cycling
Tel Aviv has a growing network of bike paths, with more than over 360 kilometers (224 miles) existing or planned. In April 2011, Tel Aviv municipality launched Tel-O-Fun, a bicycle sharing system, in which 150 stations of bicycles for rent were installed within the city limits. Jerusalem has over 125 kilometers (78 miles) of cycleways, either existing or planned.
National Bike Trail
The National Bike Trail, when completed will take riders from the southern city of Eilat to the border with Lebanon, passing though Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and several other cities.
Ofnidan (Greater Tel Aviv Cycle Network)
As of 2021, construction was underway on Ofnidan, a cycle network of seven inter-urban routes connecting the cities of the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area, with some segments already open.
Public transportation
Bus service
Buses are the country's main form of public transport. In 2017, bus passenger trips totaled approximately 740 million. In 2009, 16 companies operated buses for public transport, totaling 5,939 buses and 8,470 drivers. Egged is Israel's largest bus company, and operates routes throughout the country. Bus routes in some areas are operated by smaller carriers, the largest being the Dan Bus Company, operating routes in Gush Dan. Kavim is the next largest.
Bus stations in Israel, other than standalone bus stops, come in two types: terminals (masof, pl. mesofim) and central stations (tahana merkazit). Each terminal serves a number of routes, usually over a dozen, while a central station may serve over a hundred bus routes. The largest central bus terminal in the country is the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station, which is also the second largest bus terminal in the world.
On August 5, 2010, the Ministry of Transport opened a website that contained information about public bus and train routes in the country. Previously, information was given only by the individual public transit operators.
Bus rapid transit
Israel has one bus rapid transit system in Haifa, called the Metronit, which consists of three lines connecting Haifa to its suburbs. In addition, there are BRT feeder lines to the Jerusalem Light Rail, running on dedicated bus lanes from Southern Jerusalem to the Northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot crossing the light rail line at the intersection of Jaffa and King George Streets.
Share taxis
Israel also has a share taxi service (, sherut), run by several private companies, depending on location, in addition to regular taxicab services. The shared sherut service usually appears a yellow minivans and travel along the same path as the normal buses with identical route numbers. For a slightly higher price, the shared sherut service allows passengers to both hop on and hop off anywhere along the path of travel. During peak travel, often the time of travel can be shortened as the number of passengers is significantly small compared to normal bus services. Some routes continue to travel through the night and on Shabbat providing transport needs to the population when normal buses services cease. The beginning and end of the sherut vans may differ from the central bus station and on the weekends and evenings, the routes can also be altered for some services. In 2015, share taxis carried 34.7 million passengers, 15.2 million of which were transported on city routes, with the rest going to suburban and inter-city routes.