The Menachem Begin expressway is one of the better engineering projects built in Jerusalem in recent years, providing a rapid path for driving across much of the new city. It has cut my commute time to work by 70%…

Begin Expressway, Jerusalem

Image: Adiel lo, via Wikimedia Commons.

There is only one minor detail about it that I always find amusing yet annoying. The builders picked a logo for it, which is prominently displayed on the signs leading to it. And here it is on the left.

Begin Expressway Logo     Freeway Sign

Now, at first glance it seems highly appropriate for an expressway, showing lanes and an interchange. But when you look closely, you notice:

  1. The symbol is pretty tangled, like a knot really. Hardly the image of a freeway, where the main concept is that you zip right through. The standard freeway road sign, at the right, does a far better job of conveying this idea.
  2. There is no way to travel this path on a freeway interchange. At first I thought you might do it in the UK, where they drive on the wrong side of the road, but even that is not true – there, the road on the logo would cause cars coming from both directions to collide in the middle of the bridge.

What were they thinking!? 🙂