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There is a button on the base of most city traffic lights for pedestrians to push. Do these buttons really make the lights change any faster?
Question
#68516. Asked by Allergic2Life. (Jul 20 06 11:10 AM)
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Brainyblonde
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Some pedestrian signals integrate a countdown timer, showing how many seconds are remaining until the vehicular traffic will be allowed to proceed through the crosswalk. Some also incorporate a button on the near side to allow a pedestrian to "tell" the system that a pedestrian is waiting for a WALK signal, which may or may not produce the desired signal more quickly -- although some systems for busy roadways will increase motor traffic flow by not producing a WALK signal at all unless such a button is pushed. In pedestrian-friendly areas, countdown timers are common and buttons are rare. In pedestrian-unfriendly areas, countdown timers are rare and buttons are common.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crosswalk
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Baloo55th
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In the UK we don't have countdowns on traffic lights, but we do have buttons on all lights where there is a pedestrian crossing at the lights. These tell the system someone is waiting to cross, just as the sensors in the road tell it a car is waiting at the red. Some lights put the pedestrian light into sequence with the road lights, others (like the ones at the top of my road) give the pedestrian the next turn. This means they get two turns to every one for the road, which causes great trouble at school coming out time. Only if the system is on default setting (something's gone wrong) do the pedestrian lights work in sequence without a button being pressed (or perhaps if a button sticks!).
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What-A-Mess
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Does not speed up the change but includes the crosswalk into the change sequence. Normally crosswalks are not a part of the "timing sequence" of traffic control devices. In large cities where crosswalks are a daily part of life crosswalks are part of the sequence during business hours.
Traffic management is a degreed subject of study in a lot of major Universities. There is a lot to this science!
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