This man should not rule your life!
It's true I've written about this subject before, but it continues to be an "issue" for me. With the exception of a few tricky intersections in my neighborhood where I never know when the lights are going to change, I look for traffic, then cross, regardless of the color of the traffic signal. And I have gotten lots of dirty looks, fists shaken at me, and recently was taunted by a young mother with her son ("Red rider! Red rider!" the boy shouted at a biker crossing against the light. Then, "Red walker! Red walker!" the mom yells at me.)
In New York, you feel like a loser if you DON'T cross against the light. But here, I swear, I feel like I'm committing a crime (am I? minor detail...). People tell me I should be setting a better example for young children. But you know what? That's not my job. When my little Dudechen is born, I promise to be a good role model for him, but the other kids are on their own.
I offer, as further proof of the national obsession with obeying the little red man, two articles. One is written by a non-German, who witnessed another very funny incident of people you wouldn't expect to follow the rules standing patiently for the light (http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,406539,00.html).
The second article is an article about Der Ampelmaennchen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampelm%C3%A4nnchen) - the little man on the traffic signal. When Berlin was known as East Berlin and West Berlin, each had their own unique traffic signals. After reunification, there was a big discussion about how to unify the traffic signals. West Berliners wanted theirs, East Berliners wanted theirs. I have to say that before I had heard of this, I had never given any thought to what the figures on a traffic signal should look like (although the new ones installed a few years ago in Park Slope were excessively blinding). But this, to me, just shows how much this subject matters to Germans. In any case, the East Berliners managed to save their little traffic signal man and he can even be found in many West Berlin neighborhoods today. In a nice little twist on perserving this symbol of the communist east, there is a tourist shop in the former East Berlin where you buy all kinds of crap with the Ampelmaennchen logo.
I don't care what any little red man or any German granny tells me, if there aren't any cars coming, I'm walking!
