Sweden praised for ‘imaginative’ LGBT-friendly traffic lights
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Stockholm is set to install LGBT-friendly traffic lights in celebration of the city’s Pride week.
The Swedish capital will join numerous European cities in setting up the lights, which will replace a lone figure with same-sex couples holding hands or embracing.
With separate lenses for green and red lights, there will be 96 images of LGBT partners flashing across Stockholm between July 31 and August 6.
“We want to show that we’re an LGBT-friendly city – and show that even in tough traffic!” the capital city’s deputy mayor Daniel Helldén told news outlet The Local.
“We stand for one Stockholm for all,” he added.
And he suggested that the move could become permanent, saying: “It would of course be nice to have them up all year round.”
However, he explained that the final decision would be down to the transport authorities.
The announcement means that Pride Park, near the Olympic Stadium in the centre of the city, will be surrounded with images of same-sex couples.
Helldén said that responses to the plan had so far been “generally very positive,” with residents having praised their city for “caring and having some imagination”.
Last year, before hosting the Eurovision Song Contest, the city put traffic lights in place which played winning songs from previous years.
Loreen’s ‘Euphoria’ – the winning song from 2012 – could be heard at a red light.
When it was time to go, authorities programmed lights to play Mans Zelmerlow’s 2015 Eurovision winner Heroes to encourage people to cross.
Stockholm follows numerous other European cities in installing LGBT traffic lights.
Madrid spent €22,000 replacing 288 lights this year for World Pride, before announcing that the “inclusive” installations would remain permanently.
And London set an example for other cities last year by making the same move.
Around 50 lights at pedestrian crossings in the centre of the capital still in place today.
Earlier this year, Turin became the first city in Italy to announce it would put up LGBT-friendly traffic lights.
In March last year, the Dutch city of Utrecht made the same move, with same-sex couples replacing individual figures.
