Do crosswalk buttons really work?

[1995hoo]

I always laugh at the people who think pressing them six or seven times will somehow make the light change sooner. Same thing happens at elevators. Do people think it somehow doesn't count if they haven't pressed the button themselves?

No, it's just we have nothing better to do while we're waiting 1000000 million minutes for the signal to say "WALK."

....

I just assumed nowadays anybody younger than age 30 would be completely focused on their little text messages to the point of forgetting they were waiting to cross the street! (Seriously, a few days ago I came up behind a guy who was waiting to merge onto an arterial street, but he didn't go when it was clear, so I went around him....he had his phone up on the steering wheel and had apparently forgotten he wanted to merge.)

[Pete from Boston]

A complaint I hear is that they work, but it doesn't matter because people push the button and cross long before the "walk" signal appears.  Drivers then sit there fouling the air for 30 seconds.

[JMoses24]

Sometimes, they work here.

However, Saturday I walked from my house to the Radio Shack down the street. The lights on Turfway Road did not all work.

[thenetwork]

I always cringe when I happen upon a "cheap" crosswalk install that has a plastic button only about the size of my pinky nail.  How long before some smart-alec kid(s) hit that button so hard to either jam it or shatter it inside the metal housing so you cannot push it.  (Answer:  Not long at all...)

The installs with the rubber covering around the last pretty long, and the newest of the bunch seem to be the best -- metal on metal with the button 3 or more inches wide.  A far cry from that "microscopic" plastic button.

[mtantillo]

In DC, just about all signals call up the pedestrian phase on every cycle, meaning as a pedestrian, you need not push the button before you cross. There are enough pedestrians to justify this though. In my neighborhood, there are pushbuttons, and the only difference between pushing it and not pushing it is that the accessible ped crossing features (the speech indications, and chirping) only work when the button is pushed. Otherwise, all you hear is the pushbutton locator tone.

But out in Virginia on VDOT roads, you have to push the pedestrian pushbutton to trigger the walk. Otherwise, you will never see the walk signal. When you push the button, you immediately get 7 seconds of walk time, plus the flashing don't walk time if there is enough time to accomodate it in the current cycle, otherwise you get it at the beginning of the next cycle. The flashing don't walk ends whenever the flashing time maxes out, after the 7 seconds of walk indication, regardless of how much time is left on the cycle.

[mtantillo]

Oh, I remembered this story told to me by a longtime Florida traffic engineer. He was out doing field work one day, and he had to test the pedestrian signals to determine what the length of the walk and flashing don't walk phases were. So he pushed the pedestrian button, and then proceeded to watch the signal without actually crossing the street. Then he did it for the crosswalk in the other direction.

A police officer pulled up and told him that he can't push the button and then not cross, because he was holding up traffic. Only after a long explanation of what he was doing and showing his timing data sheets and business card did he get off. But seriously, who would try to ticket someone for something so inconsequential, and I would really love to know if there is actually a law that says, "once you push the button, you MUST cross".

[mrsman]

Oh, I remembered this story told to me by a longtime Florida traffic engineer. He was out doing field work one day, and he had to test the pedestrian signals to determine what the length of the walk and flashing don't walk phases were. So he pushed the pedestrian button, and then proceeded to watch the signal without actually crossing the street. Then he did it for the crosswalk in the other direction.

A police officer pulled up and told him that he can't push the button and then not cross, because he was holding up traffic. Only after a long explanation of what he was doing and showing his timing data sheets and business card did he get off. But seriously, who would try to ticket someone for something so inconsequential, and I would really love to know if there is actually a law that says, "once you push the button, you MUST cross".

There probably is no such law, but it's important to keep a respect for the law.  This is especially important at ped only crossings.  If there is no ped crossing, would people be willing to stop the next time?

In Los Angeles, they have a great mid-block crossing for pedestrians.  You see this all over downtown and on certain busy pedestrian streets like Fairfax Ave.  Drivers see a R-Y-G signal that only turns red when the pedestrians hit the button.  But when the light turns red, the red light flashes.  This means that if there are no pedestrians crossing (for instance a ped who crosses faster than the allotted time), drivers can treat the light as a stop sign and proceed even before the light turns green.

[vdeane]

In the area I grew up, there's a signal for a pedestrian crossing.  In theory, people going to/from the school and the historic neighborhood to the west can push the button and cross when the signal stops traffic.  In practice, people push the button, jaywalk as soon as they see a break in traffic, only for the signal to stop traffic when they're long gone.  It's not a frequently used crossing outside of school hours, and these days it probably wouldn't even be installed due to the frequency of jaywalking to the south and the decline in the number of walkers.

[M3019C LPS20]

That generally depends on where you are located regarding traffic volume. Here in New Jersey, most crosswalks are actuated, in which is true for side streets of intersections. So, they do work; however, most pedestrians ignore the buttons to cross streets safely.

Being originally from New York City, I remember the inoperable buttons there. Most have been disconnected from service for over twenty years. Though some still work in certain areas, where traffic volume is low. Also, N.Y.C.D.O.T. continues to install them along with vehicular detection.

[Scott5114]

A police officer pulled up and told him that he can't push the button and then not cross, because he was holding up traffic. Only after a long explanation of what he was doing and showing his timing data sheets and business card did he get off. But seriously, who would try to ticket someone for something so inconsequential, and I would really love to know if there is actually a law that says, "once you push the button, you MUST cross".

I imagine he could handwave it under some sort of "obstructing traffic" law, but whether it would stick in court might be interesting.

On a somewhat related note, there is a pedestrian crossing on Classen Boulevard (old US-77) in the Miller District of Norman. One of my friends used to live in the house adjacent to it (there's an elementary school across the street) along with five or six other people. On days with heavy traffic, or when someone was running late for work, it was a semi-regular thing to enlist the help of a friend to activate the signal so that someone from the house would have a clear shot out of the driveway!

[roadfro]

I think the news story was extremely misleading by showing only the viewpoint of "big cities" with pre-timed signals in congested downtown areas. But that's not what people will get out of that story--people will think that all crosswalk buttons do not work everywhere. Even in its discussion of traffic congestion issues, there are other traffic coordination concerns where having the buttons activated is advantageous.

I.e. in Las Vegas, where signals are coordinated along a major arterial, the walk phase may show up automatically with the start of green on a major arterial but to cross the arterial along the side street requires pressing the button. Also, the main street coordination plan takes into account full green and walk time for the side street phases; however, if no pedestrian is there to activate the side street walk, the side street phase can end early resulting in early release for the major street.

In Los Angeles, they have a great mid-block crossing for pedestrians.  You see this all over downtown and on certain busy pedestrian streets like Fairfax Ave.  Drivers see a R-Y-G signal that only turns red when the pedestrians hit the button.  But when the light turns red, the red light flashes.  This means that if there are no pedestrians crossing (for instance a ped who crosses faster than the allotted time), drivers can treat the light as a stop sign and proceed even before the light turns green.

This, to me, sounds like a more intuitive approach to signaling a crosswalk than the new HAWK displays. I like the fact that it's always on (no dark phase as seen with a HAWK), but there's still the flashing red to allow cars to go if the crosswalk is clear.

[tradephoric]

As a driver, I like being able to judge where I am in the cycle when approaching a green light by observing the pedestrian indication through my peripheral vision.  If I see a WALK, I know I have plenty of time to clear the intersection.  If I see a FLASHING DON'T WALK (FDW), I know the light is about to change and be prepared to stop (if countdown timers are being displayed, ideally the light will change to yellow just as the countdown timer reaches zero).   In some cases the signal won't change to yellow when there is no demand on the side-street and the signal is setup to REWALK, but that would be an exception that I can live with (since there are benefits of having a signal set up to REWALK).  I never enjoy seeing a SOLID DON'T WALK as I'm approaching a green light since I have no idea when the signal is about to change.  Now as a pedestrian, I like having the WALK extended for as long as possible to complete the crossing.  I never enjoy seeing a SOLID DON'T WALK when there is plenty of time to safely cross the street.   

If pushbuttons are used, drivers are likely to see a SOLID DON'T WALK when approaching a green light, which prevents the driver from knowing where they are in the cycle.   Also, pedestrians are more likely to see a SOLID DON'T WALK even though there may be plenty of time to safely cross (since pushbuttons are often set up for only 7 second WALKS).

For these reasons, I think main-street push buttons should be used sparingly.  There are cases when main-street pushbuttons are necessary but I think they are often overused.  Now side-street pushbuttons are a whole different ballgame.   Often times you want to skip the side-street when no vehicles are detected or shorten the side-street phase when no pedestrian are detected.  In these cases, the use of side-street pushbuttons would be absolutely necessary.   Basically, having pushbuttons at all 4 corners of an intersection is rarely needed (but you see it a lot). 

Hopefully that made sense, or maybe i'm just rambling 

[roadfro]

Hopefully that made sense, or maybe i'm just rambling 

Yeah, I made sense of it. Except this part at the end:

... Basically, having pushbuttons at all 4 corners of an intersection is rarely needed (but you see it a lot).

For a typical 4-way intersection, even if you are only using push buttons for side street peds to cross, you still need a button on all four corners...