From Elvis to Mainzelmännchen: How pedestrian traffic lights become a violation of the rules

There are many special pedestrian traffic lights in Hesse. They may be nicer to look at, but they violate traffic laws. Nevertheless, they exist. How come?

bStand at red, walk at green. Traffic lights show pedestrians when they can cross the street without danger. Like almost everything in Germany, pedestrian traffic lights are of course precisely standardized. And yet there are many strange exceptions in Hesse and the Rhine-Main region alone. An Elvis traffic light in Friedberg and Bad Nauheim, a traffic light with Mainzelmännchen in the Rhineland-Palatinate state capital or a gay traffic light in Frankfurt. How can that be?

The city of Hanau's request to install two Brothers Grimm traffic lights near the castle prompted a longer statement from the Hessian Ministry of Transport in 2019. The Darmstadt regional council, which had originally been asked to approve a Brothers Grimm traffic light, had forwarded the request to Wiesbaden. The head of the Roads and Transport Department in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Transport, Martin Weber, responded to the request in May 2019 and explained what was important with pedestrian traffic lights.