If you wander the leafy Straßen of Hamburg, inevitably you will need to cross a road or two. Before you go thinking that I’m going to tell you to look left then right then left again, make sure you do look both ways, and be sure, be very sure, be 110% sure, to make sure the green man is illuminated and telling you to go.
Jaywalkers (like me) or ‘jaycyclists’ (like me) are shunned in this city, and I get a severe guilt trip from the curb crowd when I do break free prematurely. The boys in blue are also known to slap you with a fine, but that is a rarity.
Hamburg hails cyclists and pedestrians the respective kings and queens of the streets. Drivers are ever-wary when turning, slowing down and checking for cyclists in the bike lanes and pedestrians on crossings.
But let me tell you, it’s a two-way street.
For on your stroll about town, you will notice that at any crossing, albeit on the outskirts of town, with not a car in sight – until the green man says ‘go’ the Hamburgers will stay put on the curb.
And, just to make sure they don’t get any “crrrrazy” ideas to cross prior, there is not one red man, but two!
Was one red man not enough for the rule-abiding Hamburgers? Did all hell break loose before they brought in the reserves?
Hamburg is the only city that I have seen the double red man pedestrian lights, though apparently the Scandinavians are on to it too. So, why is it so?
No amount of Googling or asking residents could give me the answer, so I took it upon myself (during my recent unemployment spell) to go to the source that is Hamburg Tourism.
Dear Mrs. Robinson,
thank you for your enquiry.
The reason is for the case that one light fails the other light works.
Thank you very much,
Yours sincerely
HAMBURG Tourismus GmbH
Hmm. Nope, I’m not buying that. If this was the logic behind installing a second light, then they would surely insist on backup for every traffic light in town, and more so for the vehicle traffic which has a greater chance of doing damage.
The other explanation I heard from a Hamburger was that the council just decided to use the same triple light frames that they use for vehicle traffic. Nope, not buying that either. The rest of us figured out a way to make it work, and we aren’t the brightest bulbs of the bunch!
The Germans pride themselves on their ingenuity and logic, but whichever way I look at when they thought of this idea this was most certainly not a ‘light-bulb moment.’
Strike 1: A second red man light = double the light bulbs and double the energy to power them
Strike 2: Hamburg is the only city in Germany that I know of that enlists the second red man.
Strike 3: I’m a believer in two heads being better than one, but not necessarily when they are attached to two men. A red-headed-woman? Now we’re talking (one guess as to the colour of this writer’s mane..)
So I responded to Hamburg Tourism, thanking them for their prompt response (less than 24 hours from a public body!), and asked for further information. No reply.
However, you’ll be pleased to know I have now found what I believe to be the answer to my nagging query. Studies in Copenhagen found that people were less likely to jaywalk when there was a second red man light ‘enforcing’ the road rules, therefore decreasing the number of pedestrian accidents. According to this psychology, if they took the second man away now, there would be chaos on the Hamburg streets. This theory was my initial thought, but really, are we such a simple species? Apparently so.
The lights are on, but nobody’s home.
Herein, Hamburg 
tres bien, ma fille ; zwei kopfs indeed – definitely avec dois corpos – how would that be in OZ !! bises + beijos – papa
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I was fascinated by and curious about that, too 😀 My friend’s guessing was that these are the lights installed before the lights for bicycles were created, so it meant both pedestrians’ and cyclists’ crossroad. New lights have only one pedestrian light and another with a cyclist, I believe.
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Well Ankss, you can inform your friend otherwise! It’s funny when you meet people who have been living in HH for several years and tell you “There are two red pedestrian lights? I never noticed!”
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Still, I don’t buy that “one light fails, the other one works” argument 🙂 My friend says that’s interesting, because the red lights have double circuits, meaning that inside one light there’s already another spare one (in a huge simplification).
Also, he says that in Bremen they also have double red light for pedestrians – maybe it’s a typical Northern Germany thing?
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Last paragraph contains the argument/fact I agree with: “Studies in Copenhagen found that people were less likely to jaywalk when there was a second red man light ‘enforcing’ the road rules, therefore decreasing the number of pedestrian accidents.” As it was first trialled in Copenhagen and other parts of Scandinavia, it naturally filtered to Northern Germany too. Hamburg, being a pioneer in Germany of implementing new technology/methodology, was one of the first to give it a try. It seems to work, but I still seem to J-walk…
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after 4 years: German wiki says that for color blind persons+reduncacy for failed lamp (which are not LED one)
In einigen Städten in Deutschland gibt es dreifeldige Fußgängersignale. Hier ist die Signalkammer für Rot doppelt vorhanden. Dadurch können Menschen mit Rot-Grün-Blindheit auf einen Blick erkennen, ob die Ampel Rot oder Grün zeigt. Außerdem wird vermieden, dass bei Ausfall eines Rotlichts die Anlage aus Sicherheitsgründen abgeschaltet würde.
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Thank you for the update! I still find it inconclusive 1) that’s a very big investment for a very small population of colourblind people! 2) Even a colourblind person could tell the difference between the signal for the man walking, and the signal for the man stationary! Colour is irrelevant. The biggest lesson to learn is simply to look both ways before crossing safely – we can’t just rely on lights when there are distracted drivers on the roads at any given time.
To be continued… lol, I also saw in that article there are finally a few Ampel”women” signals, that shows progress 🙂
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