Traffic pulpit

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Traffic tower at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin , commissioned in December 1924,
photo taken in 1927

The traffic pulpit (also: traffic tower ) was a building at the busy intersections of larger cities and was used to regulate road traffic by traffic police . Due to the elevated position, the police officers had a good overview of the traffic situation.

history

The first traffic towers were usually erected as an open platform in the middle of an intersection. The police controlled the traffic with hand and / or acoustic signals. Soon the traffic storms were supplemented with mechanical signals such as rotating colored discs, boards or signal wings.

The first light signals on traffic storms were introduced in London for a short time in 1868 and in some cities in the USA from the beginning of the 20th century .

In 1922, Joseph H. Freedlander designed a traffic signal tower , lavishly designed with cast bronze plates , of which seven copies were installed on Fifth Avenue in New York in December 1922 . It can be seen as a model for the traffic tower at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin , which was put into operation on December 15, 1924 with Germany's first traffic light system.

The light signals were initially attached directly to the traffic towers. In order to improve visibility for road users, traffic light poles were set up at the crossroads and pedestrian crossings as early as 1925. Since one wanted to continue to observe and regulate the traffic from an elevated position, some traffic pulpits were built, mostly at the edge of the intersection. In Berlin, after the traffic storm at Potsdamer Platz, a year later the model of a traffic pulpit was presented for the intersection of Friedrichstrasse and Leipziger Strasse , which was to be mounted on a cantilever arm and also to regulate neighboring intersections. However, this project was no longer implemented because a central control of the light signals of larger areas was sought.

Traffic Tower at Kurfürstendamm corner Joachimsthalerstrasse in Berlin

The light signals of the respective intersection or a group of neighboring intersections were initially controlled manually from a traffic tower or a traffic pulpit. Soon the traffic lights could be integrated into central control systems, in which the green phases of the streets were coordinated, i. H. were switched in the spirit of a green wave . The traffic towers or traffic pulpits were manned by personnel only in special traffic situations; as a rule, the traffic lights were controlled automatically.

Although the light signals (traffic lights) prevailed in Germany from the end of 1924, traffic storms were also built with hand-operated form signals, which were cheaper to buy. For example, for the Leipzig spring fair in 1926, a traffic tower was built on Augustusplatz on which an AMBI traffic regulator was mounted.

After the Second World War , individual traffic pulpits were erected at selected intersections in larger cities, which soon mostly only served to monitor the traffic and were no longer arranged in the middle but at the edge of the intersection. Due to technical improvements in the control technology, controls depending on the volume of traffic , traffic control systems and traffic jam information messages on the radio, the traffic pulpit was already superfluous in the late 1960s and dismantled at most locations. A traffic pulpit was set up individually in the respective cities; there were no building regulations for its appearance and structure. Today there are only a few examples of traffic pulpits left, but without serving their original purpose.

In the 1920s, control towers on airfields were also referred to as traffic towers , e.g. B. Cologne-Butzweilerhof Airport .

Examples of traffic towers and traffic pulpits

Traffic pulpit in Sofia

Picture gallery

Web links

Commons : Traffic pulpits  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ History of Traffic - Traffic Signal Tower designed by Joseph H. Freedlander, 1922 , accessed on July 13, 2019.
  2. ↑ December 15, 1924: Approval of the traffic tower by the municipal building police, the first officer climbs the tower (Photo: Robert Sennecke) . In: Vossische Zeitung , January 3, 1925, foreign edition, p. 1, accessed on July 13, 2019.
  3. ^ Karl August Tramm, chief engineer: traffic storms . In the employee magazine Berliner Straßenbahn , year 22, issue 18, September 4, 1925, Berliner Straßenbahn-Betriebs-GmbH , Berlin, p. 2 ff, accessed on July 14, 2019.
  4. ↑ Dr. H .: Berlin traffic regulation . In Städtebau , Edition XIII, year 1928, Verlag Ernst Wasmuth AG , Berlin, p. 192 ff, accessed on July 13, 2019.
  5. ↑ a b February 1926, Leipzig, Augustusplatz - traffic tower, AMBI traffic controller (enter AMBI in the search mask). In: Image database of the Federal Archives , accessed on August 9, 2019.
  6. ↑ Verkehrsturm Butzweilerhof, 1926 In: luftfahrtarchiv-koeln.de , accessed on July 17, 2019.
  7. ↑ Verkehrs-Turm Bremen, 1988 In: architektur-bildarchiv.de , accessed on August 25, 2019.
  8. ↑ Historical postcard: Verkehrsturm Chemnitz, Falkeplatz , accessed on July 16, 2019.
  9. ↑ When the traffic light adventure began in Chemnitz. In: Freie Presse Chemnitz from December 10, 2016, accessed on July 16, 2019.
  10. ^ Dresden, Verkehrsturm am Wiener Platz, 1928 In: AltesDresden.de , accessed on July 14, 2019.
  11. ↑ From above. Traffic pulpit at the Green Tree completed . In: Eisenacher Current Newspaper . May 23, 1964, p. 1 .
  12. ↑ Dr. Steffen Raßloff : Traffic tower on the Anger. In: Erfurt-web.de , accessed on July 14, 2019.
  13. ^ Heinz Lauenroth , Ewald Brix (texts): Hanover, capital and trade fair city. A documentary picture booklet , texts in German, English, French and Spanish, 4th edition, Hanover: Steinbock-Verlag, 1958, (without page numbers, text and photo in the section on traffic and roads )
  14. ^ Cologne, traffic management stand at Rudolfplatz, 1954 Historical Archive Cologne, Kölner Kalendarium 2013 , calendar sheet May, accessed on July 14, 2019.
  15. ↑ Historical postcard: Verkehrskanzel Leipzig, Augustusplatz, accessed on July 17, 2019.
  16. ↑ Lübeckisches Jahrbuch, year 1924–1925, p. 102 f. , accessed on August 10, 2019.
  17. ^ Stuttgart, traffic tower in front of the train station, September 24, 1950 Photo by Willy Pragher . In: landesarchiv-bw.de , accessed on August 24, 2019.
  18. ^ Vienna, traffic tower at the corner of Mariahilferstrasse and Neubaugasse, 1952 photo by Albert Hilscher . In: bildarchivaustria.at , accessed on July 14, 2019.
  19. ↑ Zurich's lost UFO. In: Tagesanzeiger.ch , November 27, 2018, accessed on July 16, 2019.