Neunzehn

I keep kicking myself while out walking about (which might be why my heel hurts so) because with the teeny little purse I've been schlepping, I never have my camera. Then I see awesome stuff like stoplights just for bicycles and the sight just has to stay inside my own brain. Unless I mooch off the more industrious people of the world who already did the work for me. Like this guy.


Photo by tillwe on Flickr

How cool is that? They don't have them at every traffic light, but in areas where there is extra heavy bike traffic, you see this. And I love them. Although, you kind of have to know they're going to be there and look for them. Much like most of the traffic lights here. They're not way up high and out in the middle of the intersection like they are in the states. In fact, when standing at the crosswalk and waiting to cross the road, you are looking directly at the side of them and don't get to obsessively check the light. As if that red circle might tell you more than the big red hand (which, here is a red dude or a red dude and a bicycle if the crosswalk is intended for both types of traffic).

The other interesting thing about traffic lights here is that when the light is about to turn green, the red light remains lit and the yellow one flashes on. Like it's telling you get ready to GO GO GO!. And people do. When we first moved to Fayetteville, we couldn't figure out why people just sat at green lights for-ev-ver. Until we realized that people don't stop at red lights. There, yellow meant hurry up! and red meant ok just you, guy, and maybe you too then everybody else better stop. Here, people stop and then they GO. And if you don't, they honk. (Even though I just learned on my Driving In Germany While Tangentially Affiliated With The Army License test that honking is expressly prohibited within city limits for all but the most dire circumstances. Apparently, 1 -2 seconds of green light neglect is a dire circumstance.)

In other news, I got our VPN service operational and we're able to watch American TV online, now. I've been binging on Ugly Betty and I'm sure The Man and I will get all caught up on 24 and Fringe in the next week or so.

Technorati tags: Germany, biking, TV