It's a hybrid It's a hybrid

Cop Cab hits the streets, prematurely

Israel Police aims to cut down on drunk driving with a new public awareness campaign

By Jessica Steinberg

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24 December 2013, 5:16 pm

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Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center

It's a hybrid! Half taxi, half cop car (Courtesy Natan Epstein Facebook page)

It’s a cab. No, it’s a police car. No, wait, it’s both.

The split car, whose front half is painted to resemble the standard white Israeli police cruiser, while the back half looks like a traditional yellow cab — even though Israeli cabs are usually white — is part of a new public awareness campaign being unveiled by Israel Police, encouraging people to avoid drinking and driving.

Unfortunately, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Department of Israel Police, the fleet of patrol cars were unveiled a tad too soon.

“They weren’t supposed to be on the streets until New Year’s Eve,” she said. “It was a mistake; I don’t even have all the information on them yet.”

It seems that social media was doing a good job of spreading the word, given the numerous postings on Facebook of the Cop Cab, as some were calling it. Photographed on a Tel Aviv street, the police half of the cruiser is printed with the words, “This ride will cost you NIS 25,000” (about $7,000). The back, taxicab half reads, “This ride will cost you NIS 50.”