How-To: Use a Crosswalk Button
It seems everywhere I go people do not know how to use crosswalk buttons. They stand there, mash the buttons half a dozen or more times, then walk to the entrance of the crosswalk. If the lights do not change right away, they walk back and mash the button some more, hoping it will speed the lights up. Well that is not how crosswalk lights work!
The only thing done by pushing the crosswalk button is that it activates the crosswalk lights to come on when the lights rotate next and maybe extends the duration for which to cross by a few seconds. It does not speed up the light rotation at all. A good example on how to see that this is not the way crosswalk lights work is to either live in the College’s Old Residence and be a student going to/from school, or simply just to wait at any set of lights where there are pedestrians and watch them mash the buttons.
If you are a student, you could attempt to cross the street at 11pm, push the crosswalk button, and still stand there for quite a while until the lights rotate. In this case, it is usually just easier to hop across the street if there is no traffic. I am not suggesting you should jaywalk, but just saying it is easier a lot of the time (especially at 3am in -40 walking back to Old Res from the College.)
September 16th, 2010 at 8:35 AM
Dusty says:
I don’t think anything at all changes when the button is pushed. (“The only thing done by pushing the crosswalk button is that it activates the crosswalk lights to come on when the lights rotate next and maybe extends the duration for which to cross by a few seconds.”)
But obviously people do it because they’re bored? I don’t think anyone believes that it’ll work faster if they do. Although there are some people that believe some pretty crazy things …
September 28th, 2010 at 7:21 PM
Laws Johnson says:
“The only thing done by pushing the crosswalk button is that it activates the crosswalk lights to come on when the lights rotate next and maybe extends the duration for which to cross by a few seconds.”
Although thats true on most intersections, with the advent of traffic monitoring cameras, some intersections will now stay green/red until either a car triggers the camera or a pedestrian pushes the crosswalk button. Thus, triggering the lights to change.