Last week Aza and I went to our friends’ place across town. Season 5 of Lost had just come out and they were showing two episodes in one night. Our friends subscribed to Lost via Apple’s iTunes Store, and could download the episodes after they aired. After dinner and the beginning of the new Lost season, it was getting pretty late and we have two trains and a bus to catch to get back to our flat, which ranges between a 30 minutes to 60 minute trip depending on the waiting times between each connection.

The bus dropped us off just after midnight, across the street from our flat. It was here that I noticed something very odd, because the conditions didn’t exist for what I was seeing.

The traffic lights were out.

Now, everyone has seen a traffic light when it’s not working. In the Pacific Northwest snow knocks out power every year. Heavy rains, and especially wind can contribute to trees falling on lines as well. Here I am, though, in a residential area of Hamburg, the dead of night with no storm having occurred and the traffic light is out. No rain, wind or snow was present during the day, so this befuddled me.

Then Aza explained it to me.

Apparently, during the non-peak hours of traffic, certain streets have their lights turned off. This, I just learned, is a practice throughout various countries around the world, even a few places in the U.S. Most often an operational traffic signal is replaced by a blinking amber light, just to alert people to the existence of an intersection or pedestrian crossing.

I had never thought about it until that night, about how PRACTICAL it was to turn off a light not in use. Hundreds of lights throughout the city turn off. There is traffic, but it’s very little, and no one seems to have any trouble at all driving. You can imagine trouble if people did this in the U.S., but you have to remember that German drivers are familiar with this from an early age (just as Americans all understand how to “beat the light” when it turns yellow…).

It’s the same sort of “unimaginable” concept as the autobahn, a freeway with NO SPEED LIMIT (it is recommended you go about 81/mph). If you were to propose a limitless freeway in the United States I feel you’d get the same looks from people as if you proposed turning off the traffic signals. It would work if generations of Americans were raised with understanding how to properly drive on one. The same rationale is what makes a traffic light-less street operate without problems.

Aside from comparing cultural differences, there is something else which is very interesting. Why is this done? Why are traffic lights turned off? These reasons can range from practical to “save the world!” and anywhere in between.

> Less electricity. That means less electrical generation. Somewhere along the line that probably leads to less CO2. A very “green” reason.

> Who pays the electricity bill for the city? I’m going to assume it’s the tax payers. Tax payers don’t have to pay as much when the light is turned off. Same reason you tell your kids to turn a light off when leaving a room. A practical reason.

The funny part (to me…anyways), is that I come from a place where something like this could be seen as “foolish, idiotic, dangerous, irresponsible!” or as “progressive, ‘green’, environmental!” The truth of it is, it’s probably neither. It’s not dangerous, because it is familiar. It’s not progressive, because honestly the “green revolution” is only in the U.S., Europe is already ahead. Something which made my jaw drop for a second doesn’t get a second thought here, because it is how it is.

No big posters about “doing our part” or that we’re “saving the environment”. You just get the feeling that the entire society here understands that turning the lights off when their not being used is a ‘good’ thing to do.

Oh, Lost was great. New episode on tonight!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 6:56 pm and is filed under Environmental Issues, Hamburg. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.