Do crosswalk buttons actually do anything?
They don’t do a thing. “Crosswalk buttons are fake. You suspect it. You know it in your gut. And in New York City, you are correct. Brian Sidlo in Australia pointed me to a great New York Times article from 2004 that tells the story of crosswalk buttons in New York City. Nearly all of them are mechanical placebos. Pushing the button doesn’t do diddly. It only makes you feel good. And it works! You get results. Sure enough, when the light turns green, the crosswalk signal says Walk. You controlled the traffic. “The sign says push, so I push.
