this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2026
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I'm pretty confident pushing the button actually doesn't do anything. You press the button and wait forever and eventually the lights change but they were gonna do that anyway.
It depends on the intersection. Yes, some are a placebo, too many are token, but some actually work.
In college, I lived close to my university’s campus near an intersection that would get very busy during sporting events and other occasions where there would be many people in town.
The intersection would set all the lights to red if it had detected no activity for a good while (such as at night when it was rarely used) and would also immediately change the green light for cross traffic to red if you pressed the crosswalk button so long as there wasn’t any cross traffic for a few minutes.
It was surprisingly sophisticated traffic control considering that most of the other intersections were just on simple timers.
I know for my nearby intersections, when the button is not pressed, even when the lights change, the walk signal will never illuminate.
I’ve started walking around my town a lot more since Covid, and see all three regulalrly
Yeah, a lot of the time they're just there because people look for them if they're not and then they fidget, don't wait for the signal and dash into traffic.
The town I grew up in, the vast majority didn't do anything but they gently beeped, and if you pushed the button it would tell you the sign status until it completed the cycle. Helpful for vision impaired people.
There were a few that shifted the traffic lights to a different cycle and otherwise it never did a pedestrian cycle.
There was one though, where pushing the button nearly immediately started a pedestrian cycle.
There was a wide block with an apartment building in the middle on one side, and a grocery store directly across from it. Not long enough that people complained, but enough so that people still trotted across the otherwise busy street a lot. After trying nearly everything else they eventually put a traffic light in the middle of the block that was nearly entirely on demand for the crosswalk button, because almost any delay and the (college student) residents would just dash across.
Watching confused drivers was fun.
Does the US not have traffic light controlled crossings at all then? In the UK we have multiple types of light controlled crossings for pedestrians and others e.g. bikes and horse riders (Pegasus crossing). These are always on demand from the button.
In terms of animals, pelican can be quite common in urban environments, zebra in suburban. I haven't quite seen a toucan other than separate signal fixtures in downtown Seattle (my memory is a bit hazy though). I have yet to see pegasus or puffin.
Ok good. I was worried for a moment there when the commenter I was replying to painted a picture of US drivers totally confused by traffic signals that weren't part of a junction for road vehicles.
I also had never seen a Pegasus crossing in the UK until one appeared close to where I live, it's between a suburban area and a national park crossing a 60mph road so it makes sense for horse riders to cross there. They probably appreciate it.
You might be a little far south for the Pacific Puffin.
I know at least some of them work, because sometimes I'll be waiting there for the walk signal and it never appears, and I go "Oh, I forgot to push the button."
Where I live the major cross streets' buttons are just placebo. They aren't even connected. It just makes people feel better to push them.
The smaller streets, however, they are critical. You will not get the walk indicator without it.
The one near my work extends the red light for long enough you can cross on foot & makes the walking signal & countdown appear.
It does not stop left turning cars from running us over though.
In my country, if you don't press it, you won't get green. The intersection will still change, but the pedestrian light won't. If the button isn't pressed, the intersection light will change faster, since there won't be pedestrians holding up traffic.