traffic lights
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Back in the new year, I was walking towards the National Bank in Copenhagen and traffic lights on the pedestrian crossing were against me.
Waiting on the pavement opposite side of Holmens Kanal, I realised that there were new, neat and slim traffic lights here with a less cluttered profile …. obvious against the plain stonework of the bank building. The lights themselves look larger but flatter - no heavy convex front as a lens - and they are bright and clear and no clumsy shades so presumably it’’s a narrow LED beam.
Tags on the traffic lights show that they are from the Austrian company Swarco. The PEEK label indicates they have the technology that gives emergency blue-light services priority.
Street furniture and road signs - particularly traffic lights - are a significant feature of any city-centre street scape and their size and exact position are determined primarily by the need for safety where traffic can be moving fast or where the arrangement of lanes and sight lines can be complicated and a visual distraction for any road user so they have to be obvious but, if they are badly placed or badly designed, they can have a huge and detrimental impact when silhouetted against important historic buildings.
This is a very busy junction with heavy traffic and, with various filter lanes, the roads are wide so lights for pedestrian crossings have to be well-placed and clear.
Over the last few months, these slim new lights have been installed at other junctions around the city …. here at the busy road intersection at Østerport railway station to the north east side of the city centre.
