My mother (who died a year ago at the age of 94) was a strong believer in the idea that crosswalk buttons were placebos. I remember several occasions from my childhood, when I was out walking with my mother, we would wait at a crosswalk while the traffic signals cycled through their routine repeatedly. The “WALK” signal would not appear until I, against my mother’s objections, pushed the “walk button”. And as we, at last, walked across the street, my mother would tell me again about how the “walk button” is just there for show. But to me, as a young child, it was a very simple observation: when nobody pushed the “walk button”, the “WALK” signal would not appear. When somebody did push the “walk button”, the “WALK” signal would appear. I checked and rechecked my findings several times… fifty years ago.
At work, we’ve used quasi-placebo buttons in software. The database application FileMaker Pro is funny about when it “commits” the data you enter, basically you can fill out a series of fields and none of that will be in the database until you click somewhere that’s not a field. But it feels funny to people to just click in some random place so we added a “save” image that looked like a button but was no different than any other non-field part of the GUI.
In China pretty much every elevator ‘close door’ button works immediately. I heard they disabled the button the US because there is a higher likelihood of one person immediately pressing the button no matter what, just to get where they’re going ASAP. In China, at least when I was there, pretty much everyone will wait for everyone else, even when you thought the elevator was full about six people ago.
Perfect vectors for eliminating impatient people.
No joke, I was in an elevator in San Francisco that had a button simply labeled “Earthquake.” I sincerely hope it doesn’t do what it says (although I still had to resist the urge to press it).
I sometimes think it quite odd that we, as pedestrians, have to apply to cross the road. In down-town areas at least, shouldn’t it be the motorists who should have to apply to cross the pedestrian routes? Imagine continuous side-walks and discontinuous roadways where cars (once authorised by a green light that they have to somehow trigger) have to bump up onto the stretch of foot-path and down the other side (twice) to get through an intersection. Is it any dumber than pedestrians having to step down onto the road and back up?
I would expect an “earthquake” button in an elevator to activate a safety measure that’s helpful in the event of an earthquake. I’m not sure what that safety measure would be, stopping the elevator and activating brakes, going immediately to the bottom of the shaft, something else?
Here in the lower mainland we’ve got two classes of crosswalks.
In the likes of the smaller cities like Surrey, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, etc… the crosswalks have buttons wired to them. And some of them are very notably new buttons. It seems likely that these buttons are functional buttons.
In the likes of downtown Vancouver and in some areas of Burnaby, especially where it seems there would be major pedestrian traffic the crosswalks have no button at all and the walk cycle always runs.
we have one local crosswalk button that is entirely but oddly functional. during the traffic cycle, there is always a pedestrian crossing section, but pressing the button results in extending the length of the pedestrian section by a substantial amount. it is as if the button is for “slow” crossers only.
A friend of mine who is an urban planner told me that it’s not that the “WALK” button doesn’t do anything, but rather than it’s typically inconsistent. In many parts of the US, pressing the WALK button will not initiate a walk cycle, but instead will add a number of seconds (he said “typically 3”) to the end of the usual walk cycle. This keeps the traffic cycle roughly the same but gives the pedestrian some extra time to cross the street. He said that for very tightly controlled intersections, the WALK cycle will shorten the next cycle by the same time in order to restore the programmed synchronization with previous/earlier traffic signals.
In other parts of the US and many parts of the rest of the world, pressing the WALK button will initiate a pedestrian cycle. In other words, when you press WALK the signal times down to a pedestrian cycle safely (typically transitioning to yellow after a moment or two, etc.). There is a delay so that the pedestrian cycle cannot start until a set number of seconds has passed, so that traffic doesn’t come to a stop just because pedestrians keep pressing the button. During busy times, this also gives the impression that the button isn’t doing anything since the cycle will be “maxed out.”
He told me that how a city manages its pedestrian cycles tends to say a lot about how the city views its pedestrians and how much it values walkability. Personally, I’ve noticed that cities with a large number of people walking – San Francisco, New York, for example – often have very short traffic cycles. You never end up driving very fast in the city, but since the lights are short, it minimizes speeding and trying to rush through a red light (as otherwise you’d believe you’re going to be stuck for a very long time). It also minimizes jaywalking, since there’s less of a fear that if you want to the corner you’re going to otherwise miss the light cycle. Of course, as anyone who lives in such a city will tell you, people still drive too fast and jaywalk, but you only need to compare it to a less-planned part of the same town to see how much of a difference it makes.
What drives me nucking fits in Seattle (particularly on Broadway and downtown), is the total absence of a turn filter. You are expected to share the regular green light window with the pedestrians crossing the side street. Doesn’t work too well when there’s a constant stream of pedestrians.
I work in freelance video production, so I’m in office buildings all over the place on a day-to-day basis.
Most places I go, the elevator close button works. It’s a rare happenstance that it does nothing, and usually that happens in buildings that are 10-15 years old where presumably the button has broken but not been fixed.
Crosswalk buttons are a different story. In many areas they’ve completely computerized the traffic light grid system. It’s all timed, so pushing the button would do nothing. However, in many other areas, the traffic lights are on a hybrid system of timers and pressure sensors. So at those intersections the buttons work. Also, around where I live there are several newer developments in which they’re building very pedestrian-friendly town centers, and those have buttons that not only work, but activate a series of lights and sounds unique to the crosswalk. There are LEDs embedded in the paint that flash, and the crosswalk fixture beeps or clicks to assist blind people. Those buttons definitely work.
A simple rule of thumb, if you look at an intersection and the walk/don’t walk sign has a countdown timer, the button won’t work. If it doesn’t, it may. The newer the button, the more likely it is to work.
I’m sure you’re right, and I too am curious what that would be. Maybe go to the nearest floor and open the door?
I forgot to mention that there were also buttons labeled “Asteroid Impact,” “Fart,” and “Ex-Girlfriend.”
Confirming eggy_toast - the button typically extends the length of the next green light by adding a green WALK signal period for pedestrians. It is not intended to make that next green light come sooner. Otherwise, the pedestrian signal would start with the red DONT WALK signal on the next green light as it normally does when the button has not been pressed. It is my observation that this is not common knowledge. It is also by observing the lights that I learned it (mostly West coast).
I wanna live and/or work there. They seem to have covered every last one of my elevator-related concerns.
Asteroid Impact lowers the blast doors. Fart increases ventilation. Ex-Girlfriend overrides your floor choice and lets you off at the next possible stop.
Yep, my observation in Vancouver is that if there is a button there, it usually works. The buttons that trigger the lights where the bike routes cross major roads definitely work. They usually trigger an instantaneous change to the lights (which in some cases would otherwise never change as there is only the bike-route crossing).
Yes, because cars don’t have legs.
That probably really depends on the country. In Japan all close door buttons work and work immediately. Try it sometime. I know plenty in the states that also work although I agree the majority there do not.
I’ve seen the exact opposite. I know specific lights that will not change for the opposing traffic if I rapidly press the crossing button. Yes, by that I mean I can hold traffic there indefinitely. I’ve done it for 3 cycles straight (an experiment. Sorry to the drivers I delayed)
Also, that giant 2ftx2ftx4ft box controlling the light is counting the presses. Given enough presses someone might think to “hey, according to this box there are lots of pedestrians, we should change the timing here to accommodate them”. Of course given the effectiveness of most government managed services I wouldn’t be surprised if that data is never looked at.
