Slashdot Mirror
NYC Crosswalk Buttons are Inoperative
cdneng2 writes "NY Times has an article that New
York crosswalk push buttons are actually ineffective.
Apparently, New York City deactivated most of the pedestrian
buttons long ago with the emergence of computer-controlled
traffic signals. From the article, 'More than 2,500 of the 3,250
walk buttons that still exist function essentially as mechanical
placebos, city figures show.' Well, apparently New York city isn't
the only city like this. I guess the answer lies in the same
reason why people press
the elevator button more than once."
From the San Mateo Article:<br>
<br>
<i>"The city should also consider looking in audio crossing signals for the hearing impaired"</i><br>
<br>
Audio signals for the <u>hearing</u> impaired? Why not just say there is an audio signal? Audio signals for the hearing impaired can be just as useless as the button itself!
This isn't really news. When I was in highschool (over 10 years ago) we refered to the crosswalk buttons as "Idiot buttons", because they didn't actually do anything, and you look like an idiot pushing a button instead of just waiting for the light to change.
I think that in most places it's been this way for a good long while, heck in th erinky dink town that I lived in the buttons haven't worked since the early 1990s (don't really know what they were like in the 80s). I've never really noticed that pushing that button causes anything to happen in regards to traffic.
where I live, I have a lot of time (in fact, each time I'm pedestrian) the urge to make sticker to replace "Pedestrian, press to cross" with the much more true "Pedestrian, press if you have time to lose, it will give you an occupation"