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 buttons are prominently there to meet ADA (Americans with disabilities Act) or ACA (Accessable Canada Act).
Buttons at intersections help people with mobility issues to cross at dedicated crosswalks or crossways safely, most buttons extend the cross time when pressed.
For people that have visual imperments the buttons will generally activate a chirp sound, which helps with a “haptic feedback” of where crosswalks might be or in which direction to proceed.
Anyways, they have become so ubiquitous that’s they are pretty much expected everywhere, so much so that people don’t see them as accessible infrastructure (which is a pretty good thing TBH).
I think every crosswalk should have those retractable bollards.
I don’t know that they affect the timing of the traffic lights, but I know that some of them won’t change to the “walk” signal if nobody pushed the button.
That’s the reason why they are commonly called Bettelampeln (“begging lights”) here in Germany, as you have to basically beg to even be considered as traffic participant sometime during the next cycle.
This is usually also tied to timing, just not in the sense people hammering the button to cross the street faster want. Without pushing the button, the lights will change based on car availability. Pushing the button often won’t get the light to change sooner, but it will likely stay longer to allow for people to cross the street.
It may have done that regardless due to traffic patterns, but the button guarantees it has a minimum safe crossing time.
Yeah, I have forgotten to.press and never get the walk sign.
Also, I have been driving through the university of St Louis area a lot recently and there is a crosswalk there that is just for pedestrians crossing, with a light. You press it, and the light turns red stopping traffic so everyome can cross.
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.
The ones in Cambridge Mass used to turn the lights almost immediately. I know because I pushed one and then changed my mind and lots of Boston drivers were happy to share their opinions on my decision.
Don’t know if that’s still the case.
Depends on the location. Some places the lights turn to walk at regular intervals no matter what, the button only activates the beeping. But in my city the crosswalks never say walk unless someone pressed the button first.
Same thing with elevators. The door close button only works in a fraction of elevators.
I think some are time-of-day based also, running automatically at busy times and switching to manual at off hours.
The elevator thing is interesting.
At first, you just would think it works on a delay.
People notice that they don’t really do anything. Rumor spreads that the buttons aren’t even wired.
Eventually I remember coming across an article that explained most of the time it’s a glitch. The button is telling it to close, but there’s some kind of timing limitation that means the auto-close just happens first.
But yeah, for both I’m sure there’s a lot of variation.
I’ve seen all kinds.
Some will instantly change the lights and give cars a red.
Some will trigger the lights after a period of time - maybe synced to another traffic light, or a timer so it doesn’t change too quickly/often.
Some won’t actually cause the lights to change any sooner, but pressing the button will cause the chirping sound to play for people with visual impairments when the light finally changes.
And sometimes they’re broken and trigger the lights even when nobody pushed it. Those are fun when you’re driving a car.
Their behaviour is programmed based on the characteristics of the intersection. If it’s a very lopsided one where one direction has heavy traffic and the other very little, then the button might trigger a light change.
Other times, the light timing doesn’t change, but the button will trigger the crosswalk to indicate walk after the next change.
Other behaviours I’ve seen is it changing the advance green/left turn signal, or showing the walk symbol while all traffic is stopped.
And then I’ve seen a few that do appear to do absolutely nothing - but that doesn’t mean that’s the case. For example, an intersection might have a button that only does something at night when there’s very little traffic, but doesn’t during the day when the intersection is constantly busy.
The buttons in my town make the lights last longer so you can cross safely in a decent amount of time instead of having to run.
yes, unless they’re broken. some will wait until the next natural cycle of the lights, depending on timing (rush, non-rush).
They do.
But repeatedly pressing them does not make them work any faster.
Years ago, the buttons in my town were simple things that gave no feedback, and many of them were broken and stayed broken.
Just about all of them have been upgraded to buttons that beep and flash when you push them. It’s very obvious when those break, and so the buttons are now maintained much better.
What you mentioned was exactly what happened to me. I was literally a MINUTE walk from home and the button just WASNT doing anything, and the street was insanely busy. I was waiting for 30 MINUTES before I legit called my mom to drive like 300 feet to pick me up. It took 1 minute.
I was scarred from walking much ever since.
if you’re blind or hard of hearing? absolutely.
It might depend on the time of day.
Many of this begging-buttons are only active during times of low pedestrian frequency where I live, during other times the lights just turn green each time during the overall traffic light cycle.
Might also depend on other factors, the traffic lights are individually programmed to fit the specific needs at each location.I donno. I walked at all times of the day and saw the same thing, same intervals.
Maybe they are really not active, in which case you might just be happy about it.
Thing is, in practically all cases I know of, the buttons having an actual function worsens the situation for pedestrians.
They don’t give you an advantage if you press them compared to the regular cycle, but give you substantial disadvantages for not pressing (being not even considered, pedestrian light just stays red forever…)
Depends on where you are. The ones near me actually do something. The pedestrian lights do not change to Walk unless a button is pushed.
In many cases, it activates the crossing signal for the entire intersection as well. As in, traffic will stop in all directions and you as a pedestrian can cross diagonally without issue.
Every municipality is different.
Some do nothing except beep and vibrate for visually impaired people. That style, try holding it down for 3 seconds. When you get the walk sign you should get audio and tactile feedback.
Some lights will not change to walk unless you press the button. Some only exhibit the behaviour at night.
Here’s a video of Nic Laporte studying them in Vancouver, BC, and here we have Bike ones in addition to standard pedestrian ones.
As others have said, it depends on location. Where I live in the US, the crosswalk won’t turn green for pedestrians unless the button was pushed. If it’s an intersection where traffic primarily flows on one street, and the traffic lights only change when the occasional car from the other street, the traffic light will never tell traffic to stop, and your crosswalk will never turn green. You have to push the button to signal the lights to change.
