Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for January 18, 2016

Common core crosswalks?

I can’t believe anyone is dumb enough to think those work. I still see people pressing them over and over again. If it didn’t do anything the first time, what makes you think it’ll do anything the next 50 times? I’ve never, ever used them. Then again, we New Yorkers are incorrigible jaywalkers anyway. As soon as traffic clears, I’m walking, light or no light.

I always crack up when I see someone repeatedly pushing a walk button, as if the electronic traffic controller was counting pushes and responded faster if it detected a lot of them.…

One push sets the relay circuit for a long green light and a WALK light, and that’s it. Stop humping the button.

The button is exactly at the height that I can lean my elbow on. Coincidence? I’m sure it’s not.

Maye they could turn them into multiple choice trivia questions to pass the time….

They definitely don’t work in Chicago, but they do work in most of the suburbs.Most “close door” buttons in elevators also don’t work, except in hospitals.

How about cramming them all full of used gum…?

What really gets me is that, in many cities here, we have pedestrian bridges over busy highways so people can safely cross. It seems like almost everyday on the news there’s someone killed or injured trying to cross the roadway rather than use the flyway. The news camara show people busy risking their lives by illegally crossing against speeding traffic – and the overhead is only metres away.

It’s just a matter of time until they start selling advertising on them: “Don’t Walk-run to Burger Heaven and get a Big Greasy,” stuff like that and then it changes to “Walk-in comfort in Pride Stride Shoes.”

So pushy. Da street may not like being crossed like that. Getting walked over so routinely .

Yep, like hariseldon59 there are several intersections I cross regularly where you don’t get a walk light if you don’t push the button (and often not enough time to cross the street if you cross anyhow when the light changes). Also at some of our intersections where the traffic lights are on sensors (i.e. won’t change unless there’s a car stopped at the intersection) the crosswalk light also makes the light change.

I think the buttons are actually erasing reality on the left side of the scene. Every time they press a button, a little more vanishes.

The button system was disabled, because it is at cross purpose of the synchronizing the traffic lights to maintain traffic flow.

You should give it some thought, it is pretty tempting!

There is ‘hack’ site on the web that posted the button codes to make the intersection lights do different configurations, including stop all directions. For use by safety services in emergencies.

The interesting thing about the crosswalk signals here, is that they countdown exactly how many seconds you have to cross an intersection while emitting a loud chirping noise. First couple of times I heard it, I looked around for where the loud bird was.

I thought it was all part of a grownup version of Dodge Ball!

Those buttons really do nothing. If they worked, the light would change fairly quickly.

The Deep Dark secret of those buttons is that, while they Don’t have anything to do with the Walk/Don’t Walk signs, they ARE connected to the Lottery Computers and the number of Pushes on various buttons around the state is used to control the Winning Lottery Numbers. .The Ping Pong balls are Rigged and the winning numbers are printed on the balls as they pass through the air tubes.

To walk, or not to walk. Tis far nobler to be patient, then flattened by a Mack.

There is one case where banging on the button repeatedly would actually do some good, and that is on the buttons that really do change the light, but have no feedback to tell you that they are activated. If the contact is bad and it doesn’t accept the push on the first try, then banging on it harder will make contact. Most of the time it just looks silly when others do it.