I think they are meant for people to believe they do something so they’ll feel better and wait. I used to walk a lot and encounter lots of crosswalk with buttons and I got used to how fast I should go in order to catch green every time and I could predict when the next crosswalk was going to turn green. If they truly worked then they should have been out of sync. I never pushed the buttons and I saw the light turning green even though no one pushed the button, if the buttons worked then why would the light turn green?
I also asked gemini about this and he said I’m not going insane, strange because I never mentioned if I was insane or not, but good to know I’m not.
Maybe some buttons work and other don’t depending on where it is?
The answer from this side of the pond is: it depends…
If the pedestrian crossing is a single road, the buttons definitely do work. They do have a minimum timer as to how long they have to be red to cars since last time, but other than that, they do work.
The places where they don’t work are junctions that are more complicated than a T (including a T). Basically where the flow of car traffic is already controlled by street lights, the buttons do nothing and pedestrians still have to wait their turn like cars do.