Temporary mobile signal from the 1950s installed on the Petit Pont Cardinal Lustiger
From 1949, temporary traffic lights mounted on mobile platforms were used in Paris to set up ad hoc traffic regulation following an event causing a temporary increase in road traffic.
These devices, innovative for the time and which are the ancestors of the site traffic lights that we know today, are made up of four sets comprising a mast with a traffic light placed at a height of 2.40 m. Communication between the different signals was done by radio link, the signal with the agent control box being equipped with the transmitter, and the three other signals, fully autonomous, each being equipped with a receiver. The radio antenna was placed at the top of each light.
Each signal could be connected by cable to the electrical network, but they were mostly powered by batteries, which made it possible to ensure the management of a crossroads without any cables.
green arrow and lateral pedestrian signal
exemplaires conservés au LER
the very last examples in place in Paris in 2014
now missing
In the 1940s, the city of Paris equipped many places (bends, intersections, delimitation of tunnels, manual regulation platform...), with these small unicolor copper repeaters designed by Paul Girardin Frères (PGF), probably all red in color. An extremely rare example of this signal is now kept at the MEGE museum.
In the 1970s, a more modern cast aluminum version was marketed by this same manufacturer, the Trinity Signal. Saunier Duval Frisquet with lateral pedestrian signal
In the wake of the main signal, the city of Paris will also design its own repeater model. It does not look like its main big brother at all, it is rounded at the ends, and equipped with glass lenses. The repetition of the pedestrian signal on the flanks is abandoned in favor of specific pedestrian signals.
An experiment with white stripes on the front and rear sides will be carried out in order to increase its visibility, but this will no doubt be too reminiscent of the occupation, it will not be generalized. This model is still used today.
An identical signal still used on the Champs-Elysées in 2008
Experimentation with the new Ø160 central full earth signals -
1950s
The repetition of the main signal on its back side (so-called "double-sided" traffic light) seems to have caused some problems in understanding users. Because even if this repetition was considered useful, from the 1930s, in order to give an indication of the state of the signal to users of the opposite way, experiments took place in the 1950s to remove this rear face and not leave only the repetition of the red signal, especially for one-way streets.
This modification of the traffic lights will however not be adopted, the double-sided signals will continue to be used until the 1990s, but history will prove the engineers of the city of Paris right since only the repetition of the red light, in the form of a cross , will be adopted by French regulations in the 1990s.
While signals suspended on cables flourish abroad, Paris seems to escape this type of installation, most certainly for aesthetic reasons. Aesthetics remains dominant in France, more than anywhere else.
A crossroads will however escape this rule : that of the intersection of rue Vercingétorix and rue du château, where a suspended signal will be installed in the 1950s. Its manufacturer unfortunately could not be identified.
This 4-sided signal, fixed or flashing (difficult to say on its functioning), was reinforced on the ground by tricolor luminous nails. Pedestrian signaling at this intersection was also provided by a nail placed on the sidewalk, in the middle of the zebra crossing.
This very particular installation was very probably the result of an experiment because it is the only one known to date, and it benefited from a photographic report from the Paris City Hall, now kept within the Department of Roads and Travel.
NEW MODAL OF PEDESTRIAN SIGNAL
The post-war period will be a prosperous period for traffic lights.
As early as 1943, Robert Blancherie, then director of the manufacturer EVR based in Aubervilliers, actively approached the Commissariat for Reconstruction and questioned it on the need to set up traffic lights and traffic control equipments.
From 1945, (Paris will be liberated in August 1944), at least 6 manufacturers share the market of Parisian signals: Jean Neuhaus, EVR, Saunier Duval Frisquet, Westinghouse, A. Durenne, and others whose identifcation has not been possible given the few remaining archives from this period.
The regulation equipment was provided by EVR, Saunier Duval Frisquet and Garbarini.
Manual regulation platform with Girardin signals
When the Avenue des Champs-Elysées was equipped with traffic lights, the architect of the buildings of France refused the installation of poles in the center of the avenue (he would change his mind 60 years later). Since the presence of a single pole on the pavement side does not offer sufficient visibility for this 30-metre wide lane and 4 traffic lanes, a solution had to be found that suits everyone.
A signal of reduced size, but larger than a conventional repeater, has therefore been developed in collaboration with the manufacturer Jean Neuhaus. This is a signal in the form of a repeater signal, but with Ø160 mm diameter lenses which will be placed on high luminous bollards installed on removable bases because the center of the Champs-Elysées must remain untouched during the passage of official convoys. Their color is white, like that of the terminals on which they are placed.
This Ø160 signal model will subsequently be installed at several other locations in the capital, but also used as a repeater at major intersections such as the Alma bridge.
These facilities in the central reservation of the Champs-Elysées also have another specificity which still remains today : the passage of the subway under the track makes it impossible to pass standard underground cables. Thinner cables are therefore installed, but extremely fragile, which makes these installations very vulnerable.
Ø160 SMALL TRAFFIC LIGHTS
Until then, the city of Paris was satisfied with the models of signals proposed by the manufacturers, which gave a multitude of different signals, and therefore a multitude of spare parts.
To simplify maintenance and standardize the fleet of traffic lights, the Paris City Hall developed its own model in the early 1950s.
This is a sheet metal signal, fitted with glass fresnel lenses. Its trapezoidal shape allows it to be oriented towards traffic, for better visibility. The red light is fitted with two incandescent lamps as a safety measure which allows the signal to continue to be functional when the main red lamp is out of service.
This model is fixed at the top of the pole, or on a system of tubes allowing it to be installed on almost all supports to deal with all situations : lateral, suspended or lamppost mounting.
It should be noted that this model of signal, manufactured by the Rousseau industrial sheet metal company (Robardey group) from 1958 to 2004, will also be installed in a few other cities (Marseille...).
THE PARISIAN'S TRAFFIC LIGHT
The majority of traffic lights in place in Paris were plunged into darkness by the Germans, for security reasons during curfews. Their use was in any case superfluous in the face of the reduction in automobile traffic. The extinguished lights have mostly remained in place.
In the absence of public lighting at night, many masts have been painted with white stripes to make them more visible.
At that time, electrical street furniture, including traffic lights and public lighting lanterns, were made of copper, a metal highly coveted by the Germans for use in the manufacture of shells. In order to prevent Paris from being stripped of its street furniture, the employees of the Compagnie Parisienne de Distribution d'Electricité (CPDE), then in charge of the installation and maintenance of public lighting and traffic lights in Paris, painted the copper furniture with brown paint. After the war, this color was kept for all street furniture in Paris, today we speak of the color "brun de Paris" (RAL 8019).
Candelabra with stripes and German signage
NEW MODELS OF TRAFFIC LIGHTS
The 1950s was undoubtedly the most prosperous decade for the development of the traffic lights of Paris. The famous traffic model, still used today, will be adopted in the early 1950s, and many intersections will be equipped with signals.
The signals previously installed will also be modernized and developed for the sake of road safety, in the face of the growing increase in car traffic in the French capital.
In 1956, the maintenance services, provided by EDF, intervened 1648 times on the Parisian earthing systems.
The 1940s was mainly marked by the occupation of Paris, from June 1940 to August 1944. This marked a halt to the development of traffic lights in Paris.
The Nazis will mark the signaling of the capital of their imprint, first of all with the extinction of all the luminous signals, then with the progressive installation of their own signals.
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