In the Boston area, there are many 4-way crosswalks that don’t light at all unless someone presses the button, and I’ve often had to wait longer because people assume the buttons don’t work. The problem with the easy report on “most crosswalk buttons are disconnected” isn’t that it’s necessarily false, but that it’s irresponsible. This video ends by advising people to experiment to find out whether the buttons are connected, but the message that gets to people skimming past the article is “only chumps press crosswalk buttons.” Which means they won’t press them even when they are connected, and will end up crossing less safely. So a report meant to provide an amusing tidbit about urban infrastructure has the net effect of getting more people to walk into traffic.
1 Like
