definitely satire
everybody knows an intersection like this has at least a 90s light cycle
Genuinely hilarious!
Hint of misandry too, implying it’s not manly to follow traffic safety laws. Dude probably has personal hygiene too and Mr. Jeremy Kauffman would point out washing one’s butt is gay.
Calling a man gay or effeminate in a derogatory way is not misandry. That’s homophobia and/or misogyny. Misandry isn’t a real thing just like heterophobia and reverse racism isn’t a thing.
I agree…
but not in the way the Twitter OP expects.For the majority of intersections, if you don’t press the button (or more often, don’t press it in time), you don’t get the walk light. Doesn’t matter if the parallel car traffic has a green and all cross traffic is blocked, if you didn’t press it beforehand, it stays on the red hand and skips your turn.
I say the buttons should not be there to “beg” for crossing permission. They should be used to say, “Hey I’m in a wheelchair or carrying a heavy can you give me 15 extra seconds?” And it should not need to be pressed beforehand.
Ah, so like in Europe
Europe’s a big place. I don’t have anything resembling that here in Romania. You mean like in the Netherlands?
Yeh
France too, in cities the buttons is mostly just switching on a speaker to announce when it’s green for pedestrians for the visually impaired or if you like “ding ding” sounds
Love ding ding sounds. I’d hit em all even if I wasn’t crossing just for the ding dings. My local transit agency is probably onto this fact, because instead of ding dings ours make a sound similar to when you flick a spring-loaded doorstop, but bassier.
Everyone knows that europe is js the nederlands
In my corner or Europe there are indeed many of those buttons that don’t work and are purely cosmetically. It gives people something to focus on in the minute or so they have to wait for their light to get green which it would also do anyway when no one was there.
And it’s a somewhat standardized way of putting a vibrating indicator for people with impaired sight at the pole, whether it doubles to actually request a green light or just fakes it doesn’t matter.
I ignore crossing signals at intersections that don’t turn the walk sign on by default
I’ve been honked at for it. nothing worse. hasn’t actually happened in a while now, but my reaction would definitely be a lot more aggressive towards drivers if they did it to me now
Honestly fuck the button entirely, we live in the modern era, you can use human detection technology to detect people waiting to cross
There’s plenty of places that have that
exactly, the button should just be a backup if the detection fails
There should also be a light to indicate that you’re detected, and ideally a change in the sound signal as well (because the signal has a sound so blind people know when it’s green, right?)
the length of the pedestrian’s signal may be adjusted longer as well, especially for crossing wide multi-lane and divided roadways.
It may be, but it isn’t.
Just one more lane, bro 🙏
Awww he’s upset his broom broom had to go wait wait
the entitlement of the motorati is mindboggling. god forbid someone slow down their CO2 factory for a few moments, oh’s no’s
Starting to think this entire community is satire
A local meme in my country says “you can’t be all trolls, some of you has to be an idiot for real”.
If this vommunity is a meme, i am the idiot, cause i really believe cars should be pushed back
I press the button every time, and if there’s a break in the traffic, I cross before it changes.
I also recline my seat on the plane as far as it goes. I don’t have any problem with others doing the same.
I’ve pressed the button when I don’t need to cross when the flow of traffic is being unsafe together.
The infrastructure is the true waste. I mean, the least they could have done was make it a fucking circle…
basically every single signalized intersection has been replaced with a roundabout in my town over the years, and it’s so fucking nice, both for drivers and normal people.
Everything flows smoother, people pay more attention, and the physical shape of roundabouts means 1) you basically only have to process one thing at a time 2) you never have to worry about head-on collissions 3) you ALWAYS get pedestrian islands at the crossings.
In my city, crosswalks, even with the flashing lights mean NOTHING. Less than nothing really because it gives people a (very) false sense of security.
I hit these buttons in both directions whenever I get to an intersection. The more stopped cars in the city, the better.
jokes on you, I run the red light
I definitely don’t want my life in the hands of someone that can’t afford to be 30 seconds late to wherever they are going.
Not 50 minutes of human life; 50 minutes of carbrain life. There’s a difference
I’m surprised that such buttons even exist in the US.
They’re referred to by city planners and those in the industry as “beg buttons”.
They exist in my city but the only use they have is to turn on the speaker to help the visually-impaired
THIS has to be satire.
I’m pretty sure they are almost always placebo
They often do nothing.
I had one that did nothing in my town. I wrote to the state DOT and they fixed it for me. It’s been about 10 years since then and it still works.
Just like the “close” buttons on elevators. They make you feel better. Often, the buttons don’t actually exist, and the “walk” light is on the same system that allows cars to go the same way.
We’ve been lied too! Close buttons work in asia!
There’s lots of places they do work, even in the US, which is the only place I’ve heard about them not working, it’s just not universal.
In Germany, they often just don’t have close buttons, which is better than the placebo, but still annoying
I lived in the US nearly all my life and literally never saw one that worked, they must be extremely rare.
I’ve timed them in multiple public and housing buildings in New England and New York (but like, handfuls, not thousands- I’m just exactly this type of curious and autistic, so whenever I use an elevator for long enough to get the opportunity, I do experiments). Around half work in my experience, but that may change depending on where you are.
Timed them?
Is there a delay before they work? Over here in asia, you press close, it instantly starts closing. Maybe thats why I assumed they never worked in the US.
My city surprisingly set ones up at certain intersections, where the walk lights won’t change UNLESS you hit the button. Had to get back in the habit of pressing them again
Fun fact, those are dangerous as fuck! Drivers just straight up don’t see lights that don’t regularly change.
There’s a crosswalk near me that is normally a flashing green light when you drive past it.
I still have no idea what to do at a flashing green light. What are you trying to tell me?
Wat
I think the lights change (for cars) but the walk signals specifically don’t activate unless someone pushes the button.
I hate those so so much.
Ohhh. There is one near my house that is literally only a pedestrian cross light. It’s off 90% of the time. Cars blow right through it constantly with kids in the road.
Yeah, we have some of those nearby me. “RRFB” rectangular rapid-flash beacon.
Upside, people do notice them. Downside, they never quite know what to do and it’s not good enough for a 4-lane road.
My opinion they need one-way traffic spikes activated by the buttons. That might motivate drivers to stop, and if not they get the consequences instead of a person.
Sometimes they make clicky sounds when you press them
Yeah in my city the difference between hitting the beg button and not hitting the button is often that if you hit the button, the next time your direction of travel has the green light, the little walking man light also comes on. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t affect the timings at all. And if you hit the button even a split second after your direction of travel’s green light comes on? The little man does not light up, instead it makes you wait through more than an entire cycle before it gives you the little man.
New York City is awesome in this respect: They have almost no beg buttons. There is just a pedestrian phase in every light cycle, no matter what. The same way we assume a car phase in every light cycle. Because it’s a city, there are pedestrians in cities, so it’s assumed that they’re walkin here.
One thing both NYC and my city (Portland) do right is LPIs: Leading Pedestrian Intervals. At more and more crossings, they’ve been making it so that the pedestrians get the little walking man about 7 seconds before the cars get the green. Ensuring that drivers turning have to sit there and see that there are pedestrians for them to wait for.
they do the same here in NZ (leading the pedestrian signal), and on the bigger intersections, even a red turning arrow for another 15 sec
There’s one on my bike ride home that’s wired backwards. You need to hit the one that controls the perpendicular flow to go straight.
I sent in a service request to the city, but they said it was the state’s responsibility and forwarded it.and forwarded it.
I’m sure they did.
Did you follow up with the state?
Why? I live in a state that is currently ranked 48th in many metrics including accessibility and I have still almost never seen a signaled intersection that didn’t have one. In fact I have seen several at places that aren’t even an intersection just a place where people cross the street often like near a school.
Fuck Jeremy Kauffman.
