How Pedestrian

[blackmage_nuke]

How many times do you press the button at a traffic light crossing? Ive noticed very few people will press a button more than once but constantly ramming the button appears be something Ive never grown out of. Sometimes I see a crowd of people gathered at the crossing and wonder if anyone has pushed the button.

[Laddy]

Never. Jaywalk that bitch. :smug:

[krissy]

sometimes i wonder if i pressed it properly so press it again
there's no real signal sometimes. like 'was that the beep? maybe i misheard there's a lot of traffic here'
21st century civilization my arse

[Jowy]

The buttons never worked when I pressed them.

[Aulayna]

Never - Once.

There's some crossing here which always go Green in a set order and I've got them memorized off by heart now so at those ones I don't even bother using the button as it makes no difference to when it goes Green. Others I'll press it once. I'll ram it a few times after a couple of minutes if I'm really impatient.

But it's just as fruitless as those drivers who think the closer they edge to the white line on the road, little by little, the faster the traffic light will go green.

[blackmage_nuke]

But it's just as fruitless as those drivers who think the closer they edge to the white line on the road, little by little, the faster the traffic light will go green.
I do this too but only because i dont want to waste momentum and moving from a complete stop requires more energy/fuel. (I think)

[Rantz]

I used to press them a ton when we had actual push buttons. Then most crossings switched to touch buttons and they give such a clear, definite response that I would feel like a total asshole pushing it more.

[Denmark]

an amount less than or equal to 1

[Aulayna]

I used to press them a ton when we had actual push buttons. Then most crossings switched to touch buttons and they give such a clear, definite response that I would feel like a total asshole pushing it more.

http://international.fhwa.dot.gov/pubs/pl03020/images/fig4_4.jpg

These things?

[Sephex]

I heard that they don't actually do anything, but they serve just to make the pedestrian think they are doing something.

[Aulayna]

I used to live with a Swedish guy who had a story about:

http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/hallbergsf/hallbergsf1208/hallbergsf120800004/14982953-the-sybols-for-the-button-to-cross-the-street-at-a-pedestrian-crossing.jpg

Those crossing touch things!

Apparently the company that made them in Sweden is highly religious and the sun symbol is supposed to represent God. So you are effectively touching God and asking God to provide you with safe passage across the road. This company was supposedly guilty of putting covert religious symbolism everywhere.

[Rantz]

I used to press them a ton when we had actual push buttons. Then most crossings switched to touch buttons and they give such a clear, definite response that I would feel like a total asshole pushing it more.

http://international.fhwa.dot.gov/pubs/pl03020/images/fig4_4.jpg

These things?

Yep, those! I totally did not know about the religious thing and reading about it now is pretty hilarious. Although apparently the original design was not meant that way, it was what the owner of the company saw in the design and decided to communicate. It makes me want to go out and paint them to look like buttholes though.

[Shorty]

I press it three times out of OCD habit.

[Faris]

Once is enough. There's also a light that indicates that it was pressed.

It's funny when there are 5 people waiting for the walk sign yet someone joining the waiting crowd will still come up and press the button. As if none of the original 5 waiting didn't think of that! :roll2

[qwertysaur]

I'm from New York. Nobody uses those buttons here. :p

[escobert]

I don't puch the button since there's not enough traffic in my town to need to!

[blackmage_nuke]

Once is enough. There's also a light that indicates that it was pressed.

It's funny when there are 5 people waiting for the walk sign yet someone joining the waiting crowd will still come up and press the button. As if none of the original 5 waiting didn't think of that! :roll2

Sometimes one person will walk up to the button and not push it for whatever crazy reason (possibly he thinks it does nothing which is only true for some lights), then the second person will think the first guy already pushed so they wont push it, and so on and so forth until someone has the balls to step up and push it taking all the awkwardness the others couldnt handle. Note that there are no indicator lights to tell if the button has been pushed where I live.

[Mirage]

Sometimes I see a crowd of people gathered at the crossing and wonder if anyone has pushed the button.
Are you saying that you don't have light to indicate whether the button has been pressed? Where do you live, in the 70s? :p

[Raistlin]

I'll usually push it once, though I doubt that most of them actually do anything. They're just there so that pedestrians have something to do while waiting. Like the "close door" buttons on elevators.

Though I do remember a time in high school when some friends and I were out and about at 2:00 AM in a little New Hampshire town and a friend of mine started pushing one of those buttons repeatedly. All of a sudden this incredibly loud siren went off (like a disaster warning siren) across the whole area, which freaked us all out and we logically blamed him. So I don't push them a lot.

[Mirage]

They do something, actually. Well, some do. It's not like they can automagically change every light the moment you press them, but I believe most traffic lights have several patterns. One of the patterns might not queue up a green light for pedestrians at all, while a different pattern would give them that after X other lanes have had a green light. It's probably not a good idea for a traffic light to change from one pattern to another in the middle of the current, so sometimes you just have to wait for the current pattern to end.

After all, some crossings don't have buttons at all, while others do. If they didn't do anything, I would think that no crossings would have them.

Fun fact: With the right kind of transmitter, you can change almost any traffic lights anytime you want. Naturally, you don't want to be busted with one of those.

[Clo]

I thought only old people with walkers pushed that button.

I ninja myself into the street at the opportune moment. Like a boss.

[krissy]

you guys have lights? that tell you it's been pushed?


smurfing aristrocrats over here

[Tigmafuzz]

Buttons that tell you when it's okay to cross the street? What, are you fucking blind? Take your face out of your phone and wait for the lights to turn red, you lazy bastards.

[fire_of_avalon]

Nobody tells me when to cross the street. Or where!

[DownDiagonalLeftA]

This is pretty much me pressing the button http://www.videogamesprites.net/FinalFantasy6/Party/Sabin/Sabin%20-%20Pummel.gif

[Pumpkin]

The light usually turns in my favor as soon as I press it. Then I get dirty looks from any cars pulling up. I still feel the need to press it about 4 times though. Also, late at night when one road usually gets more traffic than the other during the day there will be cars stuck waiting on the light to change even if there is no traffic so I press the button for them.

[NorthernChaosGod]

The only time I'm walking around on the streets is in downtown and they're all on timers.

[Jinx]

I usually just jaywalk if no cars are coming.

[Aulayna]

We usually jaywalk all the time in Europe because we don't really have any laws forboding it in most countries.

Except in Paris, roads are a deathtrap there.

[Slothy]

I don't push them ever since I can't think of an intersection in town that I've used where they are anything other than placebo buttons. I know for a fact that, at least during the standard work day, and probably when I'm drunk on a Saturday night, that the buttons downtown don't do anything since ever intersections lights are timed.

[Pike]

I just push it once. And yeah do they even do anything?

[Rantz]

I think those buttons here are a way to determine priority. The light might switch even if you don't push the button, but less priority is given to your crossing. They do have sensors under the roads near most intersections to determine the priority for the car lanes, but those sensors obviously don't work for pedestrians so they have the buttons instead. To be honest I thought this was standard behaviour, but reading up on it some big cities (NYC being the only confirmed example I can find) seem to have some placebo buttons.

Clever intersection programming is pretty integral to well functioning traffic (and saves everyone both time and gas), so I'm surprised if so many of you guys' cities have fully automated pedestrian crossings! Of course, it makes more sense in a super dense place like NYC where there are always pedestrians waiting to cross.

[Slothy]

Clever intersection programming is pretty integral to well functioning traffic (and saves everyone both time and gas), so I'm surprised if so many of you guys' cities have fully automated pedestrian crossings!

I think areas with less pedestrian traffic in this city have actual working buttons, but downtown is all automated. It's also just a city of 50,000 so not huge. We also have two major bottlenecks during morning and supper time traffic when everyone goes to and leaves work since there's a river running through the middle of the city and two major bridges crossing it. But unless it is snowing when you try to get to work/home, the traffic is only backed up severely for about half an hour, and only on the main roads. There are usually several ways you can go that literally bypass the traffic and get you on the bridge sooner, but most people just don't know them.

Yeah, can't tell I've done a lot of driving at various times through this city.

[Mirage]

I just push it once. And yeah do they even do anything?

Some do, some don't :p.

As robots, we should interface with them and ask.

Personally, I think it's rude to press the buttons several times. Think of the traffic lights, they're stressed out enough as it is!

[Madame Adequate]

My grandma taught me a secret code that makes them go faster. Make two short presses and then one long one.

I don't think it works but I almost always do it.

[Quindiana Jones]

There are no traffic laws in China and, as such, no concept of pedestrian safety.

[Mirage]

Traffic laws in china are more like traffic guidelines. That's what my guide (who was actually chinese) told me when I was there.


My grandma taught me a secret code that makes them go faster. Make two short presses and then one long one.

I don't think it works but I almost always do it.

Peer-reviewed source, plz!

[NorthernChaosGod]

I think those buttons here are a way to determine priority. The light might switch even if you don't push the button, but less priority is given to your crossing. They do have sensors under the roads near most intersections to determine the priority for the car lanes, but those sensors obviously don't work for pedestrians so they have the buttons instead. To be honest I thought this was standard behaviour, but reading up on it some big cities (NYC being the only confirmed example I can find) seem to have some placebo buttons.

Clever intersection programming is pretty integral to well functioning traffic (and saves everyone both time and gas), so I'm surprised if so many of you guys' cities have fully automated pedestrian crossings! Of course, it makes more sense in a super dense place like NYC where there are always pedestrians waiting to cross.

Areas with lots of foot traffic get timed crossings, and sometimes they don't even have the buttons. As far as I can tell, outside of those areas the buttons actually work.

[Værn]

What's this about traffic lights? All we have around here is two sets of four-way stop signs :colbert: