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Green light for cyclists: If the pilot project is successful, the prioritization should also be reversed at other intersections
Photo: BODE / imago images/Hanno Bode
The Begging Light system sounds unflattering.
The principle: In principle, traffic is green and therefore free to drive.
Unless a pedestrian approaches and presses the traffic light button to "beg" to cross the street.
The traffic light gets the signal: someone wants to cross the street here.
After a few seconds to minutes, the traffic light then switches to green for pedestrians and other non-motorized road users such as cyclists.
This is to prevent traffic lights for pedestrians from constantly switching to green even though no one wants to cross the street.
However, the city of Hamburg now wants to reverse the prioritization at an intersection in a pilot project: cars will then no longer have priority, but cyclists and pedestrians.
Now the drivers should "beg"
The reverse prioritization at traffic lights is intended to prevent cyclists and pedestrians from being constantly slowed down when they have to cross a street.
A similar project is running in Karlsruhe.
In the rest of Germany, the car usually has the right of way - also because age-old paragraphs slow down environmentally friendly traffic.
(Read more about this here .)
Buses should continue to be preferred
It is the first time in Hamburg that the classic traffic light prioritization has been reversed, according to a statement from the Hanseatic city.
Specifically, it is about the intersection of Kaiser-Friedrich-Ufer and the main road in the popular district of Eimsbüttel.
Immediately adjacent to the intersection is a small park next to a canal, a swimming pool and a fitness center, which is why it is used by many pedestrians and cyclists.
With the new circuit, cars only get the green light as needed.
If a car approaches the traffic light, a thermal imaging camera is activated.
After a short wait, the traffic light turns green for cars and pedestrians have to wait.
If there is a higher rush, there is longer green for motor vehicle traffic.
Local public transport buses should continue to be preferred, they do not register at the traffic light via thermal imaging cameras, but via certain reporting points.
"The changed traffic lights at the intersection of Bundesstrasse and Kaiser-Friedrich-Ufer are an expression of modern and intelligent traffic control," said Hamburg's Senator for Transport, Anjes Tjarks.
Hamburg's traffic authority wants to test whether the system works in the coming months.
Then the prioritization should also be reversed at other Hamburg intersections.
koe
