Re:The secret button at pedestrian crossings
by bmslieght on Thursday May 30, 2013 @06:14PM
(#5795592)
I am a traffic signal engineer. They don't.
They may have a detector (ir-red/mircowave/inductive loop) that detects your approach. At night, as they may be no conflicting demands - the side road will change Green ASAP.
Re:The secret button at pedestrian crossings
by paulbennett on Friday May 31, 2013 @05:48AM
(#5797636)
Do they, or did they used to, have light sensors to detect emergency vehicles coming through? Perhaps that was just an urban myth.
Re:The secret button at pedestrian crossings
by danielweber on Thursday May 30, 2013 @02:08PM
(#5794120)
Lights in the US have buttons that you can press. But they don't always work. There's one light in Cambrige, MA, that, as far as I could tell, never ever said WALK.
This traffic light is great:
https://www.google.com/maps?ll=41.869753,-87.648017&spn=...
It turns red immediately when you press the button. When I was in college, I would entertain myself between classes by going over, pressing the button just as the upstream light turned green and cars began accelerating, and then not crossing the street.
This, incidentally, is probably why most lights don't change immediately.
Almost all lights here in Christchurch have buttons to request that the lights change, except for a few like https://www.google.com/maps?ll=-43.553027,172.663193&spn... where the button does nothing, and you have to stand on the yellow pad until the lights change, or have a metal bike.
Not everyone understands that you need to keep standing on the pad, or that the bike crossing doesn’t last long enough to walk all the way across.
Just something curious while "walking around" ... https://www.google.com/maps?ll=41.869635,-87.648258&spn=...
Banshee from Halo?
Hint: cross side to side (following parent link) of street looking to sky
The crossing of the A60 into Rempstone is one such example.