Are people fearful of using traffic signals?

It's the same amount of work it takes for people to use their turn signals, which, apparently, is too much.

I HATE pressing that stupid button, but then I a germaphobe. God knows what bizarre diseases are lurking on that damned thing, just waiting for an innocent blacksmith to pounce upon and devour!

I was in Charleston SC. They have someting very cool there. When the walk sign goes on, it counts down the seconds that you have, before it changes. That is helpful, so that you can figure if you can make it across in time. That is so much better than having a phalanx of moving cars staring you in the face.

Better germaphobe than Germanphobe.

Same in Chicago - and there, they've really long periods: you could easily cross the streets three, four times until the seconds start flashing as sign to cross faster.

Phoenix that is exactly how the traffic light across from my office works - it has a count down feature. It is also very useful as it usually changes to walk immediately after pressing.

If it is because of germs then I will simply cough in the faces of those phobics as I press the button.

Aaaaagggghhh!!!

Gotta go wash my hands...

In Boston, we generally cross when we see an opening-- the light doesn't matter much (they are really just there for out-of-towners).

Because of that, I feel a bit guilty pressing the button. I usually see an opening and can dash accross long before the red hand turns into a silly white guy. If I have pushed the button, I am just making cars wait for nothing.

I use the button on very busy streets, or when I have kids with me.

Other than that, I certainly am not going to wait for a machine to tell me when I can cross.

Spoken like a true Bostonian!

I feel exactly the same way as Ebrown.

I join in praise for Chicago's pedestrian friendly traffic signals, or at least Chicago's signals in the Loop, where I did most of my long walks. Traffic still seemed to move ok.

In Albuquerque, the timing is much faster and damned scary.
There is a six lane highway near my house. Well, six lanes plus turn lanes, both at the center and at the edges of the highway.

I took my car to a tire place and decided to visit the mall catty-corner across the street to while away my waiting time for four new tires.
When I started to cross that intersection, perhaps two seconds after the walk light came on, and walked fast, I ended up having to jog to make it across seconds after the light turned red. I'm not a marathon runner, but I can walk fast and jog slightly faster. Grrrrrrr.

I've found that to be typical here at the main intersections I've crossed by foot. Mad walker that I am, I'm never doing that intersection in my area again on foot. Too bad for all the folks on the west side of that street, as they are pretty much cut off except by auto.

As to whether I push the button at crosswalks, yeah, sure I do. Even Los Angeles, a city with traffic as king, had reasonable walking time... usually.

The only time other than the situation I described above that I had trouble was one time about fifteen years ago when I had a sprained ankle, back in LA. I was still walking, just not quite as fast. Took me a few seconds to push the button and then get in place by the crosswalk, there quite a number of feet away. By the time I entered the crosswalk my white hand ok to cross signal was just about to go off. Hop, lurch, jagged fast walk across to beat the red.

So... I don't presently have any disability like arthritis in knees or hips as so many people do. Or lung problems. Shall we as 'communities' time all these people out of street crossing? Chicago doesn't.

We used to have one of those buttons at a traffic light near my house when I grew up. You could push it all day, and it never made the light change any differently. My little brother called it a "nervous button." Something you could press if you were nervous, I guess.

A lot of them are timed too fast to safely cross here.

Our city planners don't really like pedestrians anyway. They seem to think everyone should have a car. We can't get bus lanes, bike lanes or crosswalks without throwing a major hissy fit.

Well, that's my point, eva, re city planners. In LA, for decades, and probably still, traffic flow was primary.

Many urban planners, landscape architects, and regular folk, think that city life and pedestrian life matters. Lots has been written about this. Neighborhoods being cut off have a lot of consequences down the line.
You know I like italian towns, with meeting nodes (piazzas) popping up often, with alimentarias (corner grocery stores) and bars (coffee, liquers, candy, sweets) ...
we in west albuqu are whining about why a gddamn carwash showed up at the one place a little mall-ette, if not a piazza, would make sense. Geez, thousands now around here would like a place to walk to for the paper or ice cream or some frozen burritos.

I'll admit I submitted an article to the LA Times on all this, which was sent back unopened, as unsolicited, f'k them.

On the other hand, if I ever tightly hone my stuff, they might notice (have some intimations of that, re a genuine publisher.). In the meantime, pedestrian life in cities and towns is interesting to me. I prefer just reacting to being a pedestrian and not trying to interview all pedestrians in the western world. That would be hard enough, not to mention interviewing pedestrians in India. Dag? Oh, Dag....

I am not sure if this is funny to anyone else, but when I was a kid, my parents were two different demoninations of christian ... and for a while I thought denomination was an important part of identity.

I somehow confused the word "pedestrian" with "Presbyterian".

The Presbyterian crossing signs I could understand... you never know when they might dash accross. But there was a sign on a little park we went by that said something like "Presbyterian traffic only".

I remember thinking this was a bit unfair since there were no "Baptist only" signs anywhere. My father thought this was funny and for a while instead of correcting me... he played along.

I still make this connection when I see the word "pedestrian".

I push the button, but I wish I didn't have to. It would be better if the walk signals were automatic -- like the green traffic lights.

Whereas most Boston drivers confuse the word "pedestrian" with "bowling pin".

I can see in the case where it takes forever for the light to change (I have experienced those as well), but in this case, the light using changes right away. It is quicker, easier and safer to press the button in this case.

Last night the same thing happened. Some bozo was standing there waiting for the traffic to clear - I could see from a distance that this bozo had been there for a bit. I walk up press the button and immediately the light changes. The woman/bozo says "Oh" like she didn't realize there was a button.

I have been a Bostonian all my life. When I worked downtown, I would be one of the few that pressed the button. It doesn't slow traffic - being a driver in Boston too, I rather have some one press the traffic signal button and have me wait at a red light than to have twenty people dart out in front of me. The hold up in the traffic is due to a greater degree the hoards of people crossing the streets without using traffic signals. I found I had to slam on my brakes and swerve around people when a traffic signal would work more safely and efficiently for all.

Maybe the woman was from NY city, where, if my memory serves me, the walk signals are automatic.

Perhaps, but this happens on a daily basis. Most people (and I know they are not from NY as they work in my building) just stand there instead of pushing the button.