Red means go :: 2021
My - so far - two „favorite places on earth“ ( vienna´s 7th, greece of the 90s ) share similarities apart from the fact that both places had come to me by chance. One will be described here.
The head ( now former head ) of that viennese district wanted to abolish all traffic signs. I think that would have worked because it already was like this - people didn’t pay attention to traffic signs, they payed attention to each other. I never saw anybody stop at a red light, i saw people „walking“ their dog by bicycle instead, at night with head lamps on ( because obviously these bikes had no light ). Life was easy. And very funny. Until young people moved in, who were just different, they´d stop for the traffic light, not the traffic. A paradise gone.
But that reminded me of being stuck in a traffic jam on a highway at 3 am in Athens, Greece, once upon a time in the 90s. Finally we could drive forward. It ́s red light ! I shouted at the young greek who I was with that time, because he ignored a red traffic light, as if there wasn´t any. He laughed and said: Red means go. He’d pass several red lights that night, just like everyone did it. It was common, normal. I felt safe and comfortable, probably even more safe than in cities where traffic lights organize the traffic.
Red means go is what comes to my mind, when I see young people stop and older ones just walk across the street in a district that was famous for having its own rules. Red means go. A gone culture. Or a greek one* ;)
a pirate´s vespa (c) 2018 ::
* discuss this with greeks, and you´ll understand ;) :: 2026 mykonos