The first traffic light in Amsterdam was on Leidseplein: red, orange, green
Amsterdam was not the first Dutch city to introduce ‘traffic control by means of light signals’. But Amsterdam’s choice in 1932 for a German lantern with three color lamps would become the national standard.
It is busy on the Leidseplein on Monday morning, October 17, 1932. Despite the rain, there is a lot of interest in a novelty from the traffic police. Amsterdammers will no longer cross each other on Leidseplein using a police officer with a stop sign, but using three different lights. The traffic police hand out leaflets with explanations that read, among other things: ‘colour blind people are informed that the highest light is red.’ After earlier innovations such as the stop line and the stop sign, it was time for ‘traffic lights’. However, the traffic police used the term ‘traffic control by means of light signals’ because the word traffic light was already used for the light of braking cars.
Rotterdam had already tested its own manufacture of traffic lights, but both the public and the police were not satisfied with this ‘magic lantern’. Eindhoven followed with three colours, the words ‘free’ and ‘stop’ and the sound of a bell at each transition. In 1932, The Hague introduced a new variant with medical neon rings from the Dutch company Heemaf. Breda had a kind of ‘clock’ with different faces and hands, which were hung above a crossroads. Amsterdam chose yet another variant, the same three-coloured lantern as now. This lantern and the underlying system were supplied by the German company Siemens & Halske. The only moving Amsterdam adjustment was that there was only a transition of one color (then yellow, now orange) between green and red, and not, as in Germany, also between red and green. Amsterdam had many more cyclists and the police did not see it happen that they would wait neatly for the green signal, but would already stand on the pedals at the yellow ‘get ready’ light.
Three colors
In addition to the success of the test, the newspapers in the following days mainly focused on the chosen lantern: ‘In New York, the two-colour system has been introduced. And now Amsterdam starts with three colours!’ Another tricky point was that a German system was chosen and that an offer from Heemaf for a lantern with neon rings was declined. While it was just decided nationally that as much Dutch manufactured goods as possible should be bought.
When the city council questions the mayor came to the aid of the police: ‘The police cannot be accused of backwardness and as far as the regulation of traffic in general is concerned, our traffic police determine not to be taught by anyone’. It soon became apparent that the lantern was well chosen. In 1934, the tricolor Amsterdam lantern became the national standard.
Green waves
With Leidseplein, the traffic police did not opt for the simplest intersection to distribute the system, but the installation was part of a larger plan: to save on police personnel, the entire Leidsestraat would be controlled with lights. With a daily stream of cyclists, cars, trams and pedestrians, the Leidsestraat was one of the busiest traffic arteries in the city centre. The central traffic committee saw little in the diversion of trams or the exclusion of car traffic or bicycle traffic, widening the entire street would be dramatic for the shops and the construction of an underground tram at Leidsegracht was too thorough and expensive.
On the first day there were still traffic cops in the immediate vicinity “to enlighten the wavers or wholly uncomprehending with benevolent words,” wrote The people. It didn’t take long from drivers of cars and cyclists to corresponding to the brand new light signals. But the proven flow was opposed by tax inspectors, who are going to set up traps around the Leidseplein to check the bicycle tax.
The traffic light system was extended in 1933 to the Spui. By making smart use of the existing wiring of the municipal telephone, the traffic police were able to control a complex system of several ‘green waves’ from their hospital. The traffic lights at all controlled intersections can be operated from a switchable. If something went wrong, traffic on the street could be ‘adjusted’ manually using a small switch column. At the presentation, Chief Commissioner Versteeg tempered expectations: “Leidsestraat has not become an inch wider, but we still hope that we can increase the capacity a little within the limits of safety”.
Colored arrows
Subsequently, full of enthusiasm was innovated. The pedestrian was given separate lights at the Leidsebrug, there were different arrows for exit directions. In 1934, the first Dutch ‘detection threshold’ was tested on the Spui to give the regulation a little more flexibility. If no traffic came from the crossing side, you were waiting for nothing and the Amsterdammer doesn’t like that. The threshold could generate traffic by means of an air cushion, which was held by a car or bicycle. When there was no traffic, the light in other directions stayed green longer.
This highly developed system could not make the practical practical traffic police on their own. The technical knowledge and innovative power was at the Amsterdam Municipal Telephone. Because the telephone systems there had been supplied by Siemens & Halske for decades, the traffic light system fitted in well with what the Municipal Telephone was used to. In the late 1930s, a beautiful symbiosis was created between two municipal organizations (police and telephone) that at first sight had little to do with each other.
Sjoerd Linders is a designer of traffic regulations for the municipality. He is the written book To end. One hundred years of traffic regulation in Amsterdam 1912-2012available at the City bookshop Amsterdam[email protected].
Arm gestures ring signals
In 1929, the flow of the Leidsestraat was already improved by coordinating the arm gestures of the traffic cops on the street corners. A box with a bell was mounted at each intersection, signaling the officer when to let the other traffic flow through. According to agent Gerrit Brinkman, the system was allowed to enter ‘weren’t you happy because of that eternal ringing if you happened to live in a corner of the street’.