What's this old European traffic device?

[empirestate]

There's a traffic control device of some kind, several of which are visible from 0:54 to 1:12 in this video from 1950s Copenhagen. An especially good view comes a 1:07 (bottom left corner).

What is it? It appears to be a bollard of some kind, metal, with four recessed faces painted yellow, and located on small islands at intersections. Are they basically keep-right markers for turning vehicles? Have they got something to do with streetcars? I wonder if they're also illuminated? Maybe they indicate safety havens for pedestrians, or are duty stations for traffic police? So many questions. :-)

[interstatefan990]

At first I thought it could be an awkward-looking semaphore, but I'm pretty sure those were no longer in use in the 1950s.

[Jet380]

I would say they were simply markers / bollards to direct cars around the traffic islands. You might be right about them relating to streetcars, as those islands might have been used as the waiting area to board the streetcar. Melbourne uses a similar thing to protect waiting tram passengers, just a little more robust:


As for why the Copenhagen bollards had such an unusual cross-section, my guess is that they had lights in the top that would shine down on the painted 'cut-out' section and improve visibility at night. Illuminated bollards are quite common today in the UK.

[empirestate]

That seems to make sense. I can find a lot of photos of different-looking, but similarly-purposed devices, both old and new. Some of them are explicitly marked "keep right" or "keep left". I wonder if they also serve to remind motorists of the need to stop when a streetcar does?

[Jet380]

I wonder if they also serve to remind motorists of the need to stop when a streetcar does?

Quite the opposite - for the ones in Melbourne at least. The 'Safety Zone' sign tells drivers that there is no need to stop when the tram does, because the tram passengers have a safe area to wait between crossing the road and boarding the tram. If there is no 'Safety Zone', then passengers wait at the kerb and will need to step out into the road when the tram arrives - in this situation, the driver is expected to stop.

[empirestate]

After asking around, I've got the answer. The marker is known in Danish as hellefyr. Fyr means beacon, and helle means both "stone" (like a low, flat slab) and "sanctuary" or "refuge". (It's also used by children to refer to a safe spot or home base in playground games.) The marker would be placed on a helle, a raised, paved island, and together the island and marker are called helleanlæg (with anlæg meaning "installation").

So in other words, it's a marker for a pedestrian refuge island or safety island. Still widely used in Denmark and elsewhere, of course, just not of this design.

Here's a photo of one in its native habitat.

And here's a collection of 1960s Danish street scenes, showing several of these markers. The first image just happens to be an aerial view of the same intersection from 1:07 in the video.

[kphoger]

After asking around, I've got the answer. The marker is known in Danish as hellefyr. Fyr means beacon, and helle means both "stone" (like a low, flat slab) and "sanctuary" or "refuge". (It's also used by children to refer to a safe spot or home base in playground games.) The marker would be placed on a helle, a raised, paved island, and together the island and marker are called helleanlæg (with anlæg meaning "installation").

So in other words, it's a marker for a pedestrian refuge island or safety island. Still widely used in Denmark and elsewhere, of course, just not of this design.

Here's a photo of one in its native habitat.

And here's a collection of 1960s Danish street scenes, showing several of these markers. The first image just happens to be an aerial view of the same intersection from 1:07 in the video.

Thank you so much!

[Dirt Roads]

And here's a collection of 1960s Danish street scenes, showing several of these markers. The first image just happens to be an aerial view of the same intersection from 1:07 in the video.

I want one of those telephone booths!