However, Tel Aviv is also a city with many older buildings constructed before modern safety regulations were introduced. In those areas, apartments may not have private protected rooms. As a result, residents rely on shared building shelters, municipal shelters located around neighborhoods, or nearby underground structures such as parking garages and transit stations. The municipal government has mapped many of these public shelters and maintains them so they can be opened quickly during emergencies.
Despite these preparations, access to shelters is not always evenly distributed. Some densely populated areas have fewer accessible public shelters relative to the number of residents. In certain buildings, stairways or distances to a protected area can make it difficult—especially for elderly residents, families with small children, or people with disabilities—to reach shelter quickly during the short warning time typical of missile alerts.
