Does pushing the button make any difference?
The short answer is - it depends. At a standalone pedestrian crossing, unconnected to a junction, the button will turn a traffic light red.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23869955
Take one very busy crossing - at the intersection between Regent Street and Cavendish Place, near the BBC's HQ in London - and you immediately start to doubt the button's efficacy.
Sometimes people press it, sometimes they don't. In both cases there is a 105-second interval between the red man coming on and the green man appearing.
This is mid-afternoon. In the morning it is slightly longer - 110 seconds.
At night, the button does act to stop the traffic, says Transport for London. But this is only between the hours of midnight and 07:00. In the daytime, the button has no effect.
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Wow! I wonder who carried out the survey which came up with that detailed degree of information about pedestrian crossings. If I was given that job to do it would do my head in.
Last edited by: L'escargot on Thu 5 Sep 13 at 09:21
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>> Wow! I wonder who carried out the survey which came up with that detailed degree
>> of information about pedestrian crossings. If I was given that job to do it would
>> do my head in.
>>
*raises hand tentatively*
Erm, I once spent a very productive 25 minutes playing with my local pelican crossing and came to the conclusion that pushing the button did sweet f-all.
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placebo buttons on some Pelican crossings - L'escargot
