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This HAS to be satire
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this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2026
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I'm surprised that such buttons even exist in the US.
They often do nothing.
My city surprisingly set ones up at certain intersections, where the walk lights won’t change UNLESS you hit the button. Had to get back in the habit of pressing them again
Fun fact, those are dangerous as fuck! Drivers just straight up don't see lights that don't regularly change.
Thankfully the ones I encounter the most are in an already pedestrian heavy area. The city has also taken steps in the last few years to discourage driving through that stretch as well. Speed limit is slower, lights every block, pedestrian crossings (though half are mid block without lights 👎), and new expanded bike lanes. But it still makes no sense why the walk lights don’t automatically change with the traffic lights 🤦♂️
I think the lights change (for cars) but the walk signals specifically don’t activate unless someone pushes the button.
I hate those so so much.
Ohhh. There is one near my house that is literally only a pedestrian cross light. It's off 90% of the time. Cars blow right through it constantly with kids in the road.
Yeah, we have some of those nearby me. “RRFB” rectangular rapid-flash beacon.
Upside, people do notice them. Downside, they never quite know what to do and it’s not good enough for a 4-lane road.
My opinion they need one-way traffic spikes activated by the buttons. That might motivate drivers to stop, and if not they get the consequences instead of a person.
Yeah in my city the difference between hitting the beg button and not hitting the button is often that if you hit the button, the next time your direction of travel has the green light, the little walking man light also comes on. I'm pretty sure it doesn't affect the timings at all. And if you hit the button even a split second after your direction of travel's green light comes on? The little man does not light up, instead it makes you wait through more than an entire cycle before it gives you the little man.
New York City is awesome in this respect: They have almost no beg buttons. There is just a pedestrian phase in every light cycle, no matter what. The same way we assume a car phase in every light cycle. Because it's a city, there are pedestrians in cities, so it's assumed that they're walkin here.
One thing both NYC and my city (Portland) do right is LPIs: Leading Pedestrian Intervals. At more and more crossings, they've been making it so that the pedestrians get the little walking man about 7 seconds before the cars get the green. Ensuring that drivers turning have to sit there and see that there are pedestrians for them to wait for.
There's one on my bike ride home that's wired backwards. You need to hit the one that controls the perpendicular flow to go straight.
I sent in a service request to the city, but they said it was the state's responsibility and forwarded it.
I'm sure they did.
Did you follow up with the state?
I had one that did nothing in my town. I wrote to the state DOT and they fixed it for me. It’s been about 10 years since then and it still works.
Just like the "close" buttons on elevators. They make you feel better. Often, the buttons don't actually exist, and the "walk" light is on the same system that allows cars to go the same way.
We've been lied too! Close buttons work in asia!
There’s lots of places they do work, even in the US, which is the only place I’ve heard about them not working, it’s just not universal.
In Germany, they often just don’t have close buttons, which is better than the placebo, but still annoying
I lived in the US nearly all my life and literally never saw one that worked, they must be extremely rare.
I’ve timed them in multiple public and housing buildings in New England and New York (but like, handfuls, not thousands- I’m just exactly this type of curious and autistic, so whenever I use an elevator for long enough to get the opportunity, I do experiments). Around half work in my experience, but that may change depending on where you are.
Sometimes they make clicky sounds when you press them
They're referred to by city planners and those in the industry as "beg buttons".
THIS has to be satire.
They exist in my city but the only use they have is to turn on the speaker to help the visually-impaired
Why? I live in a state that is currently ranked 48th in many metrics including accessibility and I have still almost never seen a signaled intersection that didn’t have one. In fact I have seen several at places that aren’t even an intersection just a place where people cross the street often like near a school.
I'm pretty sure they are almost always placebo