For many people it is a milestone: the moment you can ride a bicycle without training wheels. Remarkably, in the Netherlands there are more bicycles than people.
A dot, an arrow or a droplet on a map on your phone: that is how we indicate our location today. But for those who grew up before the smartphone, the ANWB emergency roadside telephone was a reassuring presence along the motorway. A bright yellow sign that communicated exactly one thing: you are here, and here you can get help. The famous “rabbit ears” of the final generation were not only iconic but also functional. The post had to be recognisable from a distance, and the ears helped ensure that the sound from the microphone could be heard clearly.
The roadside telephone made you locatable in a time when your phone could not. You did not call from your own location; you called from the post, which indicated your position in the road network. The design was therefore more than just an object: it formed a junction between body, landscape and emergency services.
With the arrival of the mobile phone, the roadside telephone disappeared from the landscape. Our relationship with technology and safety changed along with it. The roadside telephone has since become a reminder of a time when visible objects in public space helped us find our bearings, long before a digital droplet on a screen took over that role.
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