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Does pressing the pedestrian crossing button actually do anything?

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Does pressing the pedestrian crossing button actually do anything?

#31

Post by AshleysBrain »

I think there's a good reason to have buttons that do nothing: it improves usability. Imagine teaching a child how to cross the road. The instructions are:

1) press the button

2) wait for green man

3) cross

Now imagine we took away the buttons that do nothing. Now you need two cases, or branching: look for button; if button is present, press it; otherwise just wait - then cross. Obviously this is still trivial but raises the bar a little and introduces greater possibility for confusion. Especially when talking about children, this makes roads easier and safer to cross, which in turn saves lives.

Re: Does pressing the pedestrian crossing button actually do anything?

#32

Post by paulbennett »

Jacqued wrote: post #25

The most fascinating part of this for me is that people _actually_ pay attention to the green and red men at crossings, and even to crossings at all. I mean, sure, where I live children or older people who can't walk very fast wait for the green man but most regular folks just go and cross where and when they please. I believe in Paris all of these are entirely automatic ; though there are buttons that are here to he…

This is fine on quiet roads, but doesn't work in busy cities. If you tried to cross the road on my walk to and from work without waiting for the traffic to be stopped you'd get hit very quickly!

edit: perhaps you live in Paris? In which case I don't envy you having to cross the roads there!

Re: Does pressing the pedestrian crossing button actually do anything?

#33

Post by andyjohnson0 »

thom wrote: post #9
CmonDev wrote: post #4

Not nearly as annoying as lift/elevator buttons.

You need a paternoster lift: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAjYAfb_HPk

One of the buildings at the university I went to had a Paternoster. Great fun, and rather more rapid that conventional lifts because there is no door open/close cycle to wait through.

The main disadvantage was that it was fairly easy to trip the sensor that detected when a body part was jammed in the opening to the lift compartment. When this happened, the compartments would come so a sudden stop - potentially between floors - until the janitor could be roused from wherever he was sleeping to restart the mechanism.

An anxiety-inducing urban myth foisted on new students was that the compartments inverted as they passed the top or bottom floors. This could be re-enforced by staying in the compartment at these points and doing a handstand as it came back into view. Seen it done.

Re: Does pressing the pedestrian crossing button actually do anything?

#34

Post by upthedale »

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #17
CmonDev wrote: post #4

Not nearly as annoying as lift/elevator buttons.

There is a persistent myth that some elevators (aka 'lifts' in my part fo the world) have an express mode that can take you to a chosen floor by pressing the door close button in conjunction with the appropriate floor button [1]. As far as I know its false. I try to avoid using elevators, but the ones I do use always seem to have a key slot to allow them to be put into 'privileged' mode. [1] http://www.newyorker.com/…

See my other reply for the perils of an express mode, which the lifts in my building do have (of a sort), and everyone knows about.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6326890

Re: Does pressing the pedestrian crossing button actually do anything?

#35

Post by INTPenis »

Yes actually, here in Sweden you have a lot of buttons with a light under it. I just love seeing people who don't understand these crosswalks, when the light is on, that's when your timer is actually counting. When the light is off, there is no timer counting down to let you cross.

So some people get to the light, and wait, thinking it's one of the many automatic crosswalks. But it's not! The light must be pushed! So they just stand there forever until they finally think "screw law, I'm crossing".

That is funny to me. :)

Re: Does pressing the pedestrian crossing button actually do anything?

#36

Post by raverbashing »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #26
raverbashing wrote: post #16

"The short answer is - it depends. At a standalone pedestrian crossing, unconnected to a junction, the button will turn a traffic light red At a junction it is more complicated." That's all you need to know. I've been to places where the 1st case applies. Press the button, the car signal turns yellow immediately (light traffic and light pedestrian traffic) At a crossing, let's see, you got there and you pressed the b…

> No system can make sense of these requests, and the traffic has to flow. Makes sense to just go through the movements and ignore the buttons. // One may not be able to mathematically ensure optimal operation but you can certainly "make sense" of the requests. Surely you read the inputs and only include the pedestrian crossings in the lighting sequence if the buttons are activated. Unless you're halting the traffic…

"and only include the pedestrian crossings in the lighting sequence if the buttons are activated"

That works for a pedestrian crossing, but not where we have two lanes of cars crossing.

Or if you think in more complicated crossings like O'Connell Bridge in Dublin, there's probably no way the buttons could have any input in the lights there without messing the traffic.

Not sure what the cameras you mentioned do, maybe it's the usual "Big Brother" cameras

Re: Does pressing the pedestrian crossing button actually do anything?

#37

Post by narcissus »

AshleysBrain wrote: post #31

I think there's a good reason to have buttons that do nothing: it improves usability. Imagine teaching a child how to cross the road. The instructions are: 1) press the button 2) wait for green man 3) cross Now imagine we took away the buttons that do nothing. Now you need two cases, or branching: look for button; if button is present, press it; otherwise just wait - then cross. Obviously this is still trivial but ra…

That's definitely an interesting take, and it triggered a thought I had a long time ago.

One thing I've noticed since moving to North America is that children get off the school bus and will essentially just run across the street, including straight in front of the bus, because they know the traffic around them has stopped.

I can only imagine that that leads to some sort of subconscious thinking that can only be dangerous once they are not on a school bus...

Re: Does pressing the pedestrian crossing button actually do anything?

#38

Post by kalleboo »

eksith wrote: post #2

I'm fairly convinced, with the exception of a handful, pretty much all the crossing buttons in Brooklyn NY are placebos. I've seen people roundhouse kick the thing (not an exaggeration) and it makes sense to have one that doesn't work since if it did previously, this treatment would kill it in no time. Also, newer ones are popping up that aren't spring based, but are touch sensitive instead. Basically a shiny Aluminu…

> Also, newer ones are popping up that aren't spring based, but are touch sensitive instead

This is the standard type in Sweden. http://imgb.mp/jie.jpg The whole front plate is touch-sensitive, it beeps and the light on the bottom lights up after it's been pressed until you can cross the street. I've never seen one not working, so they must be pretty vandalism-proof.

Re: Does pressing the pedestrian crossing button actually do anything?

#40

Post by Jacqued »

paulbennett wrote: post #32
Jacqued wrote: post #25

The most fascinating part of this for me is that people _actually_ pay attention to the green and red men at crossings, and even to crossings at all. I mean, sure, where I live children or older people who can't walk very fast wait for the green man but most regular folks just go and cross where and when they please. I believe in Paris all of these are entirely automatic ; though there are buttons that are here to he…

This is fine on quiet roads, but doesn't work in busy cities. If you tried to cross the road on my walk to and from work without waiting for the traffic to be stopped you'd get hit very quickly! edit: perhaps you live in Paris? In which case I don't envy you having to cross the roads there!

I do. I think it's a cultural thing, people around here tend to not respect the rules very much, myself included.

I must admit this behavior is less frequent in the busiest streets in town but even there it's no rare sight.

In France jaywalking doesn't exist in law, and cars are always required to give way to pedestrians crossing or looking to cross. The only thing to be aware of is, if you cross less than 50 meters away from a crossing, and there is an accident, the driver's insurance may not be liable.

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