At this traffic light, drivers sometimes have to ask for a green light

The street is called "Bundesstrasse", but it is actually only a few meters wide at this point and, despite its name, it is not one of the city's main thoroughfares - but at a certain point up to 30 pedestrians and cyclists are often waiting for the chance to to cross the lanes at green traffic lights in accordance with the rules. They either want to go to the fitness center or the bathing establishment on the one hand, or to schools and day-care centers on the other. Some just want to continue their walk along the Isebek river in Hamburg's Eimsbüttel district. In order to redesign this situation, Hamburg is now taking an almost revolutionary approach for the first time: Pedestrians and cyclists are always green unless a car asks for the passage.

"The traffic light prioritization is reversed," is the name of the new procedure in traffic planner German. Pedestrians and cyclists are therefore preferred at the Kaiser-Friedrich-Ufer/Bundesstrasse intersection. If a car drives into the detection area of ​​the traffic light, a thermal imaging camera is activated. The motorized individual traffic requests "green" and the traffic light changes after a few seconds.

According to the Hamburg Senator for Transport, this only makes sense: "The changed traffic light circuits are an expression of modern and intelligent traffic control," says Anjes Tjarks (Greens). Above all, this strengthens “active mobility”, while at the same time modern thermal imaging technology can be used to ensure “that waiting times for motor vehicle traffic remain short and that green traffic light phases are requested quickly.”

The duration of the green phases for motor vehicle traffic can be controlled depending on the volume of traffic: when there is a greater rush, there is longer green for motor vehicle traffic. Public transport buses continue to have high priority so that delays can be avoided. They do not request “green” via a thermal imaging camera, but via specific reporting points.

Tjark's authority wants to expand and, if necessary, further develop the changed traffic light circuit in the coming months with regard to waiting and driving times. The results should then also flow into similar plans for other Hamburg streets. The traffic figures at the Kaiser-Friedrich-Ufer/Bundesstrasse intersection would have shown that 7,000 people are already actively using the route along the canal and 6,000 motor vehicles are traveling on the federal highway.

According to the authorities, an improvement in traffic light switching in favor of pedestrian and bicycle traffic is also possible at the intersections between Jahnring and Saarlandstrasse (December 2022), Dratelnstrasse and Gert-Schwämmle-Weg (spring 2023), Nartenstrasse and Neuländer Strasse (2024) and Reventlowstrasse and Klein- Flottbeker Weg (2024) planned.