Finland vs Sweden 1: Traffic Lights

Moi! It was my plan to come up with a category named „Sweden vs Finland“ in order to spot out differences and communalities between both countries and now i finally did. For myself this is one of the most interesting topics in the everyday life here in the upper north. It’s time for chapter 1; Traffic-Lights.

One of the first things that attracted my attention was the behavior of finnish people at a pedestrian’s traffic light which is switched to a red light. They are standing still and wait until the green sign is appearing. I was a bit suprised of that since i got used to the swedish way of interpreting this situation. In Sweden a pedestrian’s traffic light is treated more like a suggestion and if there are no children around and any cars nearby swedish people just will cross the street. For us german people this is unthinkable. It seems like finnish guys are thinking pretty much the same. That was unexpected. I hope this new category is as interesting for you as it is for me. DerRene.

Let me know what you are thinking about it!