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Yeah, but staring at the buttons on the elevator still makes it go faster, right???

roy the chimp makes a good point about human behaviour, which explains why the walk signal buttons are designed as dummies.

We've had the same thing in the UK for decades. I noticed that pedestrian crossing lights changed whether or not you pressed the button at road junctions. They will change green at the right phase anyway, so the buttons are merely pacifiers to make people think they should expect the green man. Otherwise, people would wonder whether to ever expect a green man - hence roy the chimp is right: unless I press a lift button, how can I be really sure a lift will come, even if it would come anyway? And if I'm not happy, I can press the button again for free!

What really spooked me about UK crossing was those that are not at a junction, but merely across a road. Here, there are two kinds:
- One has another pacifier button, but the lights change automatically every 2 mins (seems like half-an-hour, doesn't it?) to stop whatever traffic exists whether you press the button or not! Of course, it's needed - how would a stranger know whether to expect a green man if there was no button to press?
- The other will only change if you press the button, sometimes instantly, sometimes after two mins. However, the worst case is people would bash this button, find the road cleared before 2 mins was up, cross over, and then an irate driver would shout at them for causing the light to change red after they crossed. Jaywalking is not illegal in the UK.

In Germany, it's different. The green man only appears at the right phase *if* you've pressed the button. If you forget, you have to press it and wait another cycle - jaywalking is illegal in Germany, punishable by a fine.

So, maybe not a hoax, but a necessary cruelty?

To roy the chimp -

No, staring at the buttons won't make it go faster. However, pushing the button repeatedly while grumbling and looking at your watch will definately work. 20 million people can't be wrong, now can they?

Oh it works. On occasion it is indeed a "pacifier button" but that is only in high traffic areas where there are people crossing the street each time the light changes. In other areas where minor traffic exists the man will appear for a short time if the button isn't pressed. But when it is it lasts far longer. At intersections with almost no walking traffic the button will work everytime. The timing differences depend on how recently the light was last triggered. It is the same deal with the pressure plates under the road that trigger the light.

I live in a suburb of Atlanta, the capital of Georgia, and I believe this article. I push the button... wait... wait... and finally it changes after 10 people have pushed the darn thing.

why would the goverment spend millions remodeling crosswalks just to keep people pacified? oh wait. this is the bush admienstration.

Actually, I know of one which does work
(I avoid that street like the plague
when driving). It is in Glen Vawerley,
a suburb of Melbourne. It is at the
pedestrian crossing on Kingsway, just
outside Dan Murphy's grog shop, when
heading east to the ANZ back on the other
side of the road. It works almost as
instantly as could be. Say, 30 seconds
for the light to turn amber, and 10
seconds more to stop the traffic. Go
there and try it if you don't believe
me.

I'm from New York City and the buttons never worked for me here and so I kind of assumed that they never worked anywhere else either. Until I was in LA two years ago trying to cross a street. The light didn't change for about 7-8 minutes and the cars were infrequent so I stepped onto the road. A police car jumped out of nowhere and the police woman was screaming at me, "What the hell are you doing? Do you want to get arrested?" Naturally, I stepped back onto the curb (bewildered that jaywalking was such a serious offense in Cali,) and that's when I spotted the button on a pole nearby. What do you know, it worked.

Didn't read the article, but the buttons have NEVER been about changing the light faster. All they do is make it so the light stays green in the direction you're going for a set amount of time and that the 'walk' signal comes on.

Try it sometime. Go to an intersection and do not press the button, the 'walk' sign probably won't come on when it's your turn to go. Press the button and it does.

Scott, what the NY Times article reveals is that the buttons (at least in New York City) aren't actually hooked up to anything. The wiring was removed years ago. So you'd have as much luck trying to get a walk signal by clapping your hands as you would pressing the button. Of course, in other cities the buttons may still be functional. At some intersections here in San Diego, if you're stuck at a red light in your car, you can hop out, press the walk signal, and trigger the light to change to green. It seems to work, though it could just be wishful thinking.

Do you guys realize that we are all wasting our times debating about the stop lights and weather or not they work for pedestrians? Come to Canada, the street lights actually have sensors so that if you push the button and the sensor picks up a pedestrian the opposite walk sign will automatically start flashing me the finger Canada ROCKS!!!

"why would the goverment spend millions remodeling crosswalks just to keep people pacified? oh wait. this is the bush admienstration."

Wow, that's paranoia... I'm really sure that there was a high level meeting in the white house about waiting at street lights.

I'n Geelong australia they work - when I was a kid late at night I would stand at the pedestrian crossing on a busy motorway -the cars do about 110km/h - As soon as you pressed the button the lights would change so I would judge it so the cars either had to run the orange or slam there brakes on to stop in time - very funny and amusing as a kid I would then work across in front and do the same again to other direction!

In places where the buttons do work, its for efficiency. Pedestrians take longer to cross the street than a motor vehicle or bicycle. So when no one presses the button, the system does not have to keep the pedestrian light on while other traffic waits. This is obvious. But on simple cross shaped intersections with traffic it doesn't make sense to have buttons. Cause traffic is either going one way or another. So perhaps these buttons are dummies.

Here in the Netherlands there are some cool buttons with lights around them. You press 'em and they all light up, then as the time nears for it to become green they turn off one by one, so you know exaclty when its gonna become green.

Anyways, it makes sense to have buttons that work. If there's no one walking you don't have to wait for the pedestrians to cross and you can have more cycles per hour.

The walk buttons at several intersections around my university most definitely do work. The pedestrian light never comes on if the button isn't pressed. This is easy to verify because when the pedestrian signals are on, all directions at the intersection are red and without pressing the button you can watch a complete cycle take place.

In the UK, from my experience, the length of time between pressing the button and being able to walk is related to the length of time since the lights were last red.
Try it. Late at night, when no-ones about, the lights change immediately when the button is pressed. In the rush hour you can wait ages for the damn thing.

This is in regards to MonkeyBoy's first post...the reason the lights change quicker at night is because the traffic lights are programmed to handle *gasp* traffic, you idiot! They respond to heavy traffic with delays in light changes, so that cars are not hopelessly stuck in an intersection. At times of light traffic, obviously they will be more responsive to the pedestrian, since there is no delay made for the drivers...In the UK...you twit, it is the same everywhere.

They've started adding traffic lights in Glasgow which actually display a countdown (seconds) to when they next go to 'walk'. Which is immesurably neater than having to guess - even if the inevitable result is that someone always runs across the road on the amber signal........

i used to live in Vegas and they had tons of countdown push for walk buttons... but one time it showed a red hand even though i should be able to go and when i pushed the button it INSTANTLY turned into a white stick figure walking. I think that the walk signal will only change if you press the button, and that's it's all it does

I've always suspected that the button isn't hooked up to anything, and after this was mentioned on Buffy it caused quite a debate between me and my friends! I live in Australia and I'm pretty sure that with some of the buttons in busier areas it makes no difference whether or not you press, the lights will still change the same, but in quieter areas the lights will never change for hours unless someone presses them (I know this, I sat with a friend at an outside table at a cafe and watched!). So maybe they only bother with certain areas.