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
The ones with the button have vehicle-activated lighting.
There’s an inductive loop in the street, that a computer system uses to sense how busy each side of the intersection is (Sometimes each lane of each side) by sensing when cars are stopped on top of it.
Since this sensing system doesn’t account for pedestrians (sometimes it struggles with motorcycles – not enough steel in the frame), there has to be a way to tell the computer that pedestrians are waiting.
Ergo, the push-to-walk button.
Latest Answers