08/30/2026
Herein lies one of the coolest stories of Iceland. During Covid, the town of Akureyri replaced one of their traffic lights with one where the stop (red) was depicted as a heart. This was a reminder to its citizens to be mindful of each other during the pandemic.
It was such a marvel that tourists, being tourists, stopped to take photographs of this lone beacon of kindness and in so doing, caused traffic jams around the light. Now, you might think that this would be cause for Akureyri to pull it down as not being worth the issues. Nay nay, I say, they didn't just double down and add a second light in a lesser trafficked area, they boldly replaced all the traffic lights.
If this story doesn't hit you in the feels and make you yearn to replace traffic lights where you are, well... check your pulse.
#2020
