Thursday, July 23, 2009

That Unique Species: The Israeli Car Driver

At the junction of David Remez, King David and Emeq Refaim Streets, which is the Pierre Mendes-France Square, traffic flow has been altered.

If you come from Emeq Refaim, you cannot turn directly into Nahon Street, where the Begin Center is located but rather you need turn a sharp right and go down to the end by the old Railway Station and go round the traffic circle there, come back on Remez and then turn right into Nahon. If you are on Emeq Refaim and what to turn around left and go back south, you have to do basically the same thing as you can't turn left at the junction but either travel straight on (and miss the turn completely) or do the turn-about maneuver described.

But Israeli drivers do not want to go all the way down Nahon Street nor continue on to Yemine Moshe to make the trun-arond. So they turn in to Nahon and then attempt to make an immediate left just past the traffic light. However, in that small area - between the light, the entrance to St. Anthony's Church and the Begin Center - there's no room.

Does that bother them.

Naw.

Do they care they are bottling up the junction?

Nope.

How do I know?

Look at the pictures:






3 comments:

Suzanne Pomeranz said...

The traffic problem aside, unless something has recently been changed, French Square is in front of the Kings Hotel where Keren Hayasod, King George, Agron, Ramban and Beit Maimon all meet and where the Women in Black gather on Fridays.

I don't think the "square" you mention has a specific name... unless the city moved the "French Square" sign to there in the hope that the Women in Black would stand in midst of all the traffic there...

YMedad said...

Not "French" Sq. but Pierre Mendes-France Sq.

Suzanne Pomeranz said...

Sorry - didn't read it correctly - sometimes I just read way too fast to get it all properly.