There are plenty of intersections where a walk signal comes on automatically, why do some intersections require a button push to initiate the walk signal when it doesn’t seem to make a difference in light timing or duration?
In: Engineering
It should make a difference. Where I live, at the intersections where I’ve paid attention, the green signal is noticeably longer if the pedestrian button is pushed than if not. There are standards for pedestrian crossing times, and it’s usually set to accommodate the slowest possible pedestrian. If no pedestrian had pressed the button, car-centric planning dictates that the cycle should be set to whatever moves cars through the intersection as fast as possible.
Where the ped signal comes on automatically, there’s two possible reasons: 1) pedestrians are so common there that they might as well always leave it on. 2) The light cycle when optimized for cars already allows enough crossing time, so the button would be an unnecessary step.
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