Hamburg is reversing the relationship between cars and people crossing the street at this traffic light. We look at why this works and improved travel time for everyone and learn a new german word: Bettelampel
Sources:
[1] https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/hamburg/Senat-will-alle-Druckknopf-Ampeln-in-der-Stadt-abschaffen,ampelschaltung102.html
[2] https://www.sueddeutsche.de/auto/verkehr-ampel-fussgaenger-unfall-1.5792114
[3] https://www.hamburg.de/bvm/medien/16988794/2023-03-16-bvm-ampel-priorisierung/
[4] https://www.mopo.de/hamburg/weshalb-autofahrer-auf-hamburgs-strassen-bald-betteln-sollen/
[5] https://www.abendblatt.de/hamburg/kommunales/article237902415/neue-regel-in-hamburg-dauergruen-fuer-radfahrer-autos-muessen-warten-tjarks-verkehr.html
[6] https://www.buergerschaft-hh.de/parldok/dokument/83188/gilt_die_ampel_priorisierung_fuer_alle_verkehrsteilnehmer.pdf
If you would like to support me financially such that I can continue to offer my content for free without any ads, consider buying me a coffee with kofi:
https://ko-fi.com/europeonwheels
In case you want to support me indirectly, some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase on amazon.
Shot on:
Feiyu Pocket 2: https://amzn.to/3wSp1q2
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra: https://amzn.to/4cjaTqe
Other Equipment:
Bike Computer: https://amzn.to/3TlmWdR
Tripod: https://amzn.to/3Pohci9
Camera Bike Mount: https://amzn.to/4aehRLi
Music:
Mac Gary Glitter – Rock ‘n’ Roll (Part 2): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sjGBXckGB4
Sound Effects from Pixabay
B-Roll provided by www.videezy.com
Satellite Imagery by Google, Landsat / Copernicus, Data SIO, NOAA, U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO, IBCAO, U.S. Geological Survey, INEGI, TMap Mobility, Data LDEO-Columbia, NSF, NOAA, GeoBasis-DE/BKG (©2009), Mapa GISrael, Inst. Geogr. Nacional, TerraMetrics, CNES / Airbus, Maxar Technologies, Airbus
There is an awesome funny overly specific german word for traffic lights that you have to manually activate as pedestrian or cyclist while cars get green by default: Bettelampel. Translating literally to begging traffic light. In germany you will find these all over the place. And in most places, traffic lights itself
Are great, allowing everyone, whether children, elderly, or visually impaired, to safely cross streets that would otherwise be very difficult. The problem arises with wait times. Since Germany still has a car-first mentality, traffic flow is usually prioritized, resulting in 2-3 minute waits, which is completely ridiculous,
Especially when there are more people than cars. At some intersections you have to wait for a whole new traffic cycle if you are a few seconds late pressing a small button. At the same time, cars always get a green light, even if there is no traffic.
Now to the premise of this video: Hamburg is testing to reverse this relationship. This means that this traffic light shows green by default for pedestrians and cyclists, and cars have to beg for a green light, though not quite as unnecessarily as stopping and pressing an abnoxious button.
Why is that viable here? Well, we are in the right place. There is a very busy bike route and path along this canal in probably the most active district Eimsbüttel. And this path crosses the 50km/h Bundesstraße here.
In the time frame from 6am to 7pm, 6000 cars have been measured, but 7000 people crossing the road actually outnumber the vehicles here. In the past, they got 1.5 to 2 hours of manually activated green light lasting 8.6 seconds, while the cars had 11.5 hours each for about 50 seconds.
Today, with prioritization, this matches the traffic flow with 17 seconds for people crossing and 14 seconds for cars, which adds up to around 5-6 hours for both. How does this work, how can cars beg for a green light? Well, thermal cameras have been installed
Above the road to count how many cars are approaching. Once these cars have passed, the traffic light switches back to continuous green for people crossing the street, which provides significant speed up and capacity. Since this is also a busy bus route, with buses running every 5 minutes in each direction,
They still have the highest priority and send radio signals to control the lights. Bus travel times have actually improved, and the final study suggests that car travel times have not increased significantly either. Ambulances also communicate with the same radio transmission, so they also benefit from the increased speed and safety.
Ultimately, this has been a great success for everyone who travels through this area. And Hamburg is already planning to install more of these intelligent traffic lights in the future, and to eliminate the Bettelampeln altogether.
9 Comments
I didn't expect a bicycle default to work this smoothly even with quite a lot of cars.
We have a slightly different version here in Lüneburg, Oedemer Weg (also around 6000 cars)/Schaperdrift (bike route and access to school and sports facilities). There the main road still has green on default, but the camera detects you so early, you often get green even before you'd need to stop (except you drive down the road like an idiot…). Pedestrians still have to push, but that's basically "push, look and go".
While these traffic lights are great. What if we could eliminate them entirely? Gothenburg in Sweden has nearly achieved this (and at the same time eliminated almost all cars)
I explain how this is possible and why it makes Gothenburg to the most environmentally friendly travel destination here: https://youtu.be/SmNOR-go-GY
Thanks to all supporters and the kind comments!
That’s a really interesting way to switch things around- in my city, we have loop detectors on the ground to request a crossing signal. However if you don’t remain perfectly still until the bike signal turns green, it reverts back to red and gives drivers a green 🤦. This is a pretty awesome change and would love to see it implemented here on major bike/pedestrian crossings.
Musste erst auf hier aufgeklärt werden das es ein deutsches Wort für den 'beg button ' gibt, schön. 🙂
Got your video in my feed just now, great video man! Very well presented and interesting. Keep up the good work! 🎉
Im American and its still a foreign concept to be able to stand at the crosswalk and not have to press the button and often on busy road ways you have to wait upwards of 5 minutes it's really annoying
Great concept! We have had "smart" technology for so long now, that it's ridiculous that our streets are still not adapted to work more optimally with just a bit of programming. Excellent video! Keep it up ❤
"Beg buttons" are ubiquitous in North America, except in large cities like Toronto or NYC where the pedestrian phase is automatic and buttons often only exist to activate the audible tone.
Great idea!
It would be great if more cities would prioritize people not using a car.