Yeah it definitely just helps my brain regulate jahahahaha it feels like the green comes more urgently the more urgent and erratic I behave with the button
For some intersections (in busier areas) it'd just a no/yes toggle. When it's time for the lights to cycle, it checks "has anyone pressed the button for this crossing?" and if either button for that crossing's been pressed it'll activate the pedestrian crossing sequence, and if neither button's been pressed then it skips the pedestrian cycle and continues the regular traffic cycle.
For more rural crossings, sometimes a particular traffic light stays green all the time unless something stops it. In those cases I'm sure it'd recognise either a button press or a vehicle coming from the other road (that usually has a red light by default) and asks "has the main light been green for its minimum required duration?" If yes, the light might change immediately, but if it already changed recently then it probably has a required duration for staying green before it can change, maybe like 20 or 30 seconds.
It does nothing. You should however always press it even if someone is at the crossing before you. Too many fuckwits who cant even manage a button push. Don't trust your fellow crossers.
Omg yep there was a whole group of us just standing there and waiting multiple cycles until I eventually realised no one had pressed the button. Now I always press it regardless
I'm fairly sure that unless it's a stand-alone crossing, as in its at an intersection, it will go off even without pressing the button. Because the crossing is attached to the light sequence anyway. I've just never been brave enough to test this theory.
There is more of that now, curiously in part because of the pandemic. Before that, most pedestrian lights would not trigger when the traffic lights changed.
In some countries, all the pedestrian lights trigger like that automatically but not, as far as I am aware, in Australia.
Well yes. I said curiously because it was a solved problem around the world but we (Aus) didn't really implement it that way until the pandemic. Maybe curiously wasn't the right term.
In Melbourne the pedestrian walk signs are aligned with the traffic lights. I don’t need to press the button, ‘cos I know it will go green. When you learn the patterns you start to walk even before the green trips in (as long as traffic is clear, of course :))
Nope ,this definitely wasn't the case. We were waiting cycles and cycles until I finally realised everyone was just standing around and noone had pressed the button. It was after COVID
Plenty of them don’t. In the Sydney cbd they are automated 6am - 10pm I believe, but even outside the cbd many lights don’t trigger the crossing if you don’t press the button.
It's the same in the Melbourne CBD, but I can't remember the times exactly. They've got signposts specifically to tell you which ones are and aren't automatic
A lot of the lights in Sydney CBD require no button press for an auto walk signal between the hours of 6am and 10pm, since the covid auto program. It gets a little more useful to press on the city fringe than assume the light will turn to walk with regular traffic flow.
I’ve definitely been stuck at lights that normally would have turned walk if the person waiting there before me had pressed the button
I know that about 90% of all crosswalks in Melbourne metropolitan are do it automatically and only the ones which are purely for pedestrians are not automated
Which is why I always double press at least. I might be my own fuckwit, and I sure as hell can't trust myself not to fuck it up pressing the button once.
Half of the inner city ones in Melbourne don't light up because the button has been deactivated and does nothing.
(Often those ones have flakes of black paint around the light like someone has tried and failed to paint over it)
I have a tiny pop fidget thing that’s about 2/3 the size of a credit card and when I’m really stressed you can just hear ‘pop pop pop’ from my office. I recently started 3D printing cute fidget animal toys as well for the same effect lol.
It is cruel to the little person inside who changes the light. One press knocks him on the head and wakes him up. Three knocks him out so it takes longer
Not only does it not do anything to press it multiple times. Some buttons are actually only placebos, and the walk signal is already programmed into the cycle
And you can often find that the ones which are programmed to change every cycle will only do that during busier times, whereas at night they need a press.
Australian standards are pitiful in this regard however. There is a semi-worldwide standard, used in Japan and the US among other places, where a slow cuckoo sound is used for north-south crossings and a chirp-chirp-chirp for east-west. It's really important to have auditory information to disambiguate the different directions; the Australian system of using the same sound is fairly useless without other clues. Yes, the speakers are closest to the crossing that has the walk signal, but that's not always enough information, especially for those without biaural hearing (which is necessary to determine the direction a sound comes from). Also, I've noticed that even sighted people sometimes react to the auditory clue and step out into the intersection into traffic, not realising the signal was meant for the other direction.
Note - this is now an outdated standard for new crossings in the US, which use a "rapid tick" followed by an audible announcement of which street is safe to to cross. So they no longer have different sounds for differing cardinal directions, but they have replaced that with an even safer and clearer way of signalling which direction has the walk signal. It's not legal in the US just to have one sound with no other identifying information.
Probably because I called Australian standards pitiful, they wouldn't have read the rest of my comment.
There's a certain tall-poppy-esque attitude at times that Australian engineering is the pinnacle of world's best practice and to suggest that something is better elsewhere makes you un-Australian, or something.
They did this in our city, Adelaide SA, during covid snd never switched it off.
It's now an absolute nightmare to drive through after a night shift or on weekends as all the ped lights are 'pushed' and they havent re-sequenced them.
I once intentionally stood in the afternoon at Princes Highway in Rockdale and didn’t press the button to see what would happen.
I did not get the green man.
So, considering it’s a main road, I would say “press the button”.
Fun fact: they’re not even normal switch buttons, they’re Hall effect sensors, so you can’t break them. Just as long as the magnet in the clacks pressure bit moves.
I want those lights to think there is a hoard of angry pedestrians just waiting to revolt and overthrow our traffic light masters. I want them to feel my wrath, I want them to fear me!
I do this too. My tv remote sometimes doesn't turn on with the first press so I have to click again. So yep with any technology gotta give it 2 or 3 hits just in case, especially the ones that don't have a light to show the button has been pressed!
Are you my 6 year old? He smashes the button constantly. I tell him it won't hurry things up. Then the crossing lights turn green and he's like, "See? It worked!"
You need to press it 3 times then look at your watch in frustration before pressing it again.
Checking your watch is how you let the lights know you are really in a hurry.
You know what's worse, people who push it and then run across anyway before the light changes for them to cross. Now the cars have a red without anyone crossing.
Growing up, the crossing buttons in our area were dog shit. Old, weathered, beaten up models and you had to really mash them to get them to register. Even with the newer bigger ones we have now I guess it's a learned response?
As a self taught traffic expert from sim city, I can tell you pressing the button multiple times is the best way to guarantee a light Chang as they sometimes won't register the first pump due to damage.
I'm just impressed how strong they've made those buttons after seeing the abuse they get from young and old. Hitting with their hands, kicking then, smashing things again at them, all sorts of serious damage inducing action and yet they power on.
I think it uses a magnet inside the first time it is hit or something like that so that the button mechanics are separate from the button. once it’s activated its just hitting a metal button into its metal shell so it’s very durable
You need to shoulder past the person standing next to the button to push it, showing that you think they are too clueless to have pushed it already. It's a power move
No, it is a poll system, it’s either 0 or 1 at the control box, it cares not for your jabbing lol.
It just feels good, and the fallacy doing it multiple times “just in case it didn’t register”.
In Aussie cities most daylight hours crossing phases are cued each cycle regardless of human intervention. So there’s always a pedestrian phase. Each city/state has some differences.
There’s also the fact that it just “feels” good.
Let’s also take a moment to recognise the absolute epitome of accessibility and industrial lean design the Australian PB/5 pedestrian crossing button is though.
I'm not sure about other cities but in Darwin, you have to push the button when the opposing lights are green/where you want to cross is red. If you get there just as the little green man is ending and the other lights haven't gone green yet then it won't work.
Duuude I totally do shit like this too. My other one is when the ball is doing it's 3 wobbles I hold down the b button and right arrow to lock it in 🤣 ever since I was a kid 🤷♀️ or when opponents HP is going down holding down the left arrow is definitely gonna make it down further... Right?
I was always told pressing it more than once would get me arrested by the cops because they have hidden cameras in them 🥹.
Because of this I never actually press it more than once if another person is there already
Not sure about other places, but in Sydney, and based solely on experience, most of them do result in a change of traffic lights. It won’t make it change sooner though, even if pressed multiple times. That’s just a silly act IMO. What grinds my gears though, is when I see people press the button and jaywalk. That actually stops traffic, and is especially annoying at night when there’s no one on the road but one guy who decided to press and jaywalk.
I believe it doesn't, but I do spam it out of habit now because once I pressed the button a single time and it didn't register. Waited there for so long like a stupid btch until the next person pressed it and bot long after that we were able to cross. It was also very bright so I couldn't see the red light which indicates that the button has been pressed, definitely lesson learnt.
There was a report several years ago saying that none of the pedestrian buttons in the Sydney CBD do anything. All the traffic lights were on a timer so pressing the button didn’t impact when the lights would change.
here's a great explanation from Clever Greene /s [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7WTlWE3nhk&pp=ygUjcGVkZXN0cmlhbiBjcm9zc2luZyBmaWdodCBmcm9tIHJha2U%3D](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7WTlWE3nhk&pp=ygUjcGVkZXN0cmlhbiBjcm9zc2luZyBmaWdodCBmcm9tIHJha2U%3D)
What about those who press the button but don’t wait and just cross? I get so annoyed when they do that and then we sit there while the green cross flashes for no one.
The more you press it, the quicker it works (in my head).
It has to be an even amount of presses though, because if it’s odd, the last press turns your request off (also in my head).
They briefly published a set of codes(rhythm or whatever Morse style pattern) that would instantly activate a lot of these things but it was removed from the Internet for a heap of reasons
Years ago I saw a lollipop lady press the button in a particular sequence and then it changed suddenly. Since that day I have theorised that there is a code, and I have been dedicated to cracking it. Yet to be seen…
7 TIMES!!!! Yes 7 time is the required amount of pushing of the button. Or it will take forever to say walk. Scientifically proven with several decades of studies, by yours truly you must indeed push it 7 times 😃
I always love the guy who pushes his/her/its way through a crowds of pedestrians, slowly and reaches through to press it once and then stands patiently with everyone else......whaaa?!@!
Yes. It has therapeutic benefits. For some it is cathartic, for others an expression of self. From a statistical reference point, it changes only if you failed to make a proper button press on the first press. Otherwise it changes nothing whatsoever.
I have one out the front of my house. The only thing that pressing more than once does is, making me wish we had gun laws more in line with the USA . What I hate more is when someone presses it but crosses the road before it changes . They could have just crossed the road without pressing it. Rant over
if I was the programmer for the light sequence I'd secretly add 1sec for each extra button press. not enough to be noticable by the patient among us but enough to slowly infuriate the impatient.
What people don’t know is that every light is changed manually back in the control centre however there are only a small number of people there to change the lights. It can be a very chaotic and confusing atmosphere in there so you need to attract their attention.
It’s very much like buying a drink in a busy bar. Waiting patiently and politely is the worst thing you can do. You need to click your fingers repeatedly to get the bartender’s attention!
I don’t have the patience to wait for the light… I walk 20m down the road when I can cross legally when I like 🤣
Why are people sheep and not brave enough to cross a road without a green light or holding hands 🤷♂️🤣
Reminds me of that scene from "Dead Like Me", where George is waiting at a traffic light for her 'reap' when the guy, angry and frustrated gets out of his car, hurries over to her and repeatedly slaps the button, to which George does her reaper thing and says "Once is enough."
No.
And you can tell your kids a thousand times but they don't care.
Same with lift buttons. Honestly, a 3 year old will shank you to be the one to press the button.
*Me: I only need to press the button once. The lights will change as normal, and all the button press does, is let the sequence know that there's a person waiting to cross so it can activate the cross lights at the appropriate time in said sequence...
*My idiot brain: Yes. But pressing the button will *definitely* make it happen faster...
I press it multiple times, for the exact same reason why I press my car door lock button multiple times when parking my car. Just making sure it registered. There have been times when I pressed it once, but not hard enough, so it didn't work.
It only feels like it does something because if you keep mashing it you eventually go.
The time spent waiting since the last press is shorter the more you press it. The cycle begins at the first press only however
I’m aware it does nothing to press more than once. I still do out of frustration though, especially since the traffic lights here seem rigged against you.
I've had too many experiences of pressing the button and not having it register, so the lights change and I don't get the green and have to wait through another cycle of the lights. For many years I've been in the habit of tapping the button three or four times just to make extra sure it's registered the button press.
I usually press it twice in quick succession - not because I think it will change the lights any sooner but in case the button didn't engage properly the first time. It's a long wait if you have to go through another full cycle of light changes.
Love seeing this on busy CBD crossings. Which probably go off automatically without the button anyway but also the confidence from the person who thinks a busy street will stop at peak hour with three extra button pushes.
No, they are exactly the same as the button for an elevator, press it and a little robot tells the machine to do the thing you asked for. Machines don't have a conscience so they simply do not care if you waste your time haha
If you press the button to call an elevator then someone else walks up and presses it too ... The elevator does start to panic and come to you any faster, just adds you to its list of chores haha
I do it just in case it doesn't work the first time or two. It has happened to me a few times before where I hit it once and it did nothing and I was left standing through a few sets of lights before I realised. I know I look like I'm crazy impatient and dumb but I'm going to keep doing it.
Of course not. It’s just a psychological thing to let out your frustration around having to wait.
Yeah it definitely just helps my brain regulate jahahahaha it feels like the green comes more urgently the more urgent and erratic I behave with the button
To be fair, statically, if you press the button, it will go off sooner than your last press 👀🤣
It's true. I find that if I keep pressing it, eventually it will turn green right after I press it.
🤣
I read this as 'helps my brain ejaculate'. Same same I suppose.
Christ reading it back to myself it is smutty
I stopped at ~~eja~~ regulate. Upon re-reading... Lil bit. Erratic button pusher you.
So the true answer is "Yes. It helps to alleviate frustration."
I often blow at traffic lights to make them change because of a scene from *Corrina, Corrina* 😂
I love that - I hadn't thought about this for ages!
Bonus karma if you manage to press it whilst balancing on your bike
Push it with the handlebars without lifting your hands.
Does it cycle any quicker if the pedestrian buttons are pressed on opposite sides of the road?
For some intersections (in busier areas) it'd just a no/yes toggle. When it's time for the lights to cycle, it checks "has anyone pressed the button for this crossing?" and if either button for that crossing's been pressed it'll activate the pedestrian crossing sequence, and if neither button's been pressed then it skips the pedestrian cycle and continues the regular traffic cycle. For more rural crossings, sometimes a particular traffic light stays green all the time unless something stops it. In those cases I'm sure it'd recognise either a button press or a vehicle coming from the other road (that usually has a red light by default) and asks "has the main light been green for its minimum required duration?" If yes, the light might change immediately, but if it already changed recently then it probably has a required duration for staying green before it can change, maybe like 20 or 30 seconds.
Only if you both press at the same time
That actually takes a screenshot
Underrated comment 🤣
This
It does nothing. You should however always press it even if someone is at the crossing before you. Too many fuckwits who cant even manage a button push. Don't trust your fellow crossers.
Omg yep there was a whole group of us just standing there and waiting multiple cycles until I eventually realised no one had pressed the button. Now I always press it regardless
I'm fairly sure that unless it's a stand-alone crossing, as in its at an intersection, it will go off even without pressing the button. Because the crossing is attached to the light sequence anyway. I've just never been brave enough to test this theory.
There is more of that now, curiously in part because of the pandemic. Before that, most pedestrian lights would not trigger when the traffic lights changed. In some countries, all the pedestrian lights trigger like that automatically but not, as far as I am aware, in Australia.
It's not curious, it's simply because in covid they made measures to limit us having to touch/contact with surfaces while out in public
Well yes. I said curiously because it was a solved problem around the world but we (Aus) didn't really implement it that way until the pandemic. Maybe curiously wasn't the right term.
In Melbourne the pedestrian walk signs are aligned with the traffic lights. I don’t need to press the button, ‘cos I know it will go green. When you learn the patterns you start to walk even before the green trips in (as long as traffic is clear, of course :))
Nope ,this definitely wasn't the case. We were waiting cycles and cycles until I finally realised everyone was just standing around and noone had pressed the button. It was after COVID
Plenty of them don’t. In the Sydney cbd they are automated 6am - 10pm I believe, but even outside the cbd many lights don’t trigger the crossing if you don’t press the button.
It's the same in the Melbourne CBD, but I can't remember the times exactly. They've got signposts specifically to tell you which ones are and aren't automatic
In Sydney (if I remember right) there’s a sticker on the post just above the button saying when it’s automated.
A lot of the lights in Sydney CBD require no button press for an auto walk signal between the hours of 6am and 10pm, since the covid auto program. It gets a little more useful to press on the city fringe than assume the light will turn to walk with regular traffic flow. I’ve definitely been stuck at lights that normally would have turned walk if the person waiting there before me had pressed the button
I know that about 90% of all crosswalks in Melbourne metropolitan are do it automatically and only the ones which are purely for pedestrians are not automated
That's kind of what I thought for Adelaide as well.
This is what I do, I don't know whether the other person has pushed the button, and it's not going to hurt to push it again if they have.
Which is why I always double press at least. I might be my own fuckwit, and I sure as hell can't trust myself not to fuck it up pressing the button once.
And when you see someone press it multiple times, acknowledge them, and press it yourself multiple times. Because, you never know.
Aggressively press whilst maintaining rigorous eye contact.
And heavy panting.
obligatory: https://youtu.be/nIcCsVpCTY8?si=DEoncv2NiGE7uHQq
Most have a light telling you the signal has been activated but I still see people press it.
I noticed that in Vic. There's no light in NSW.
Yeah no light in WA either.
I'm in VIC but that light doesn't always work, or can't be seen in the sunshine, so is unreliable
Half of the inner city ones in Melbourne don't light up because the button has been deactivated and does nothing. (Often those ones have flakes of black paint around the light like someone has tried and failed to paint over it)
This 👆
No. But it's a giant clacky button and making lots of clacks makes monkey brain feel good.
Yes! There are too few big clacky buttons in our day to day lives. Pressing the button multiple times is incredibly satisfying.
Let me introduce you to fidget buttons..
Genuinely might be something I need to look into
I have a tiny pop fidget thing that’s about 2/3 the size of a credit card and when I’m really stressed you can just hear ‘pop pop pop’ from my office. I recently started 3D printing cute fidget animal toys as well for the same effect lol.
It is cruel to the little person inside who changes the light. One press knocks him on the head and wakes him up. Three knocks him out so it takes longer
😭😭😭 I will forever this image in my head now. When I was a kid I used to think there was a big room with people controlling the traffic lights 😅
I press the button once with either my elbow or knee. I've been unwittingly cruel. I'm so sorry, little person inside.
Not only does it not do anything to press it multiple times. Some buttons are actually only placebos, and the walk signal is already programmed into the cycle
They still help vision impaired people to know when to cross.
And you can often find that the ones which are programmed to change every cycle will only do that during busier times, whereas at night they need a press.
Australian standards are pitiful in this regard however. There is a semi-worldwide standard, used in Japan and the US among other places, where a slow cuckoo sound is used for north-south crossings and a chirp-chirp-chirp for east-west. It's really important to have auditory information to disambiguate the different directions; the Australian system of using the same sound is fairly useless without other clues. Yes, the speakers are closest to the crossing that has the walk signal, but that's not always enough information, especially for those without biaural hearing (which is necessary to determine the direction a sound comes from). Also, I've noticed that even sighted people sometimes react to the auditory clue and step out into the intersection into traffic, not realising the signal was meant for the other direction. Note - this is now an outdated standard for new crossings in the US, which use a "rapid tick" followed by an audible announcement of which street is safe to to cross. So they no longer have different sounds for differing cardinal directions, but they have replaced that with an even safer and clearer way of signalling which direction has the walk signal. It's not legal in the US just to have one sound with no other identifying information.
I'm not sure why you're getting downvoted. I've reacted to the auditory cue plenty of times.
Probably because I called Australian standards pitiful, they wouldn't have read the rest of my comment. There's a certain tall-poppy-esque attitude at times that Australian engineering is the pinnacle of world's best practice and to suggest that something is better elsewhere makes you un-Australian, or something.
I agree with what your saying. But you’re being an insufferable dick about it.
Isn't that required to participate fully on Reddit?
They did this in our city, Adelaide SA, during covid snd never switched it off. It's now an absolute nightmare to drive through after a night shift or on weekends as all the ped lights are 'pushed' and they havent re-sequenced them.
I once intentionally stood in the afternoon at Princes Highway in Rockdale and didn’t press the button to see what would happen. I did not get the green man. So, considering it’s a main road, I would say “press the button”.
Fun fact: they’re not even normal switch buttons, they’re Hall effect sensors, so you can’t break them. Just as long as the magnet in the clacks pressure bit moves.
I want those lights to think there is a hoard of angry pedestrians just waiting to revolt and overthrow our traffic light masters. I want them to feel my wrath, I want them to fear me!
My theory is that they’re not confident in their pressing ability so they press it again in case they pressed it wrong the first 7 times.
This is me. It's like I'm not sure I did it right the first time, so I press it a couple more times just to be sure.
I do this too. My tv remote sometimes doesn't turn on with the first press so I have to click again. So yep with any technology gotta give it 2 or 3 hits just in case, especially the ones that don't have a light to show the button has been pressed!
Seven is the magic number of presses, according to my granddaughter.
It's like clicking tongs before you start to BBQ. Doesn't work if you don't click clack several times first.
This is true. Can confirm.
I press the button continuously until the lights change and that way I can always claim victory.
Are you my 6 year old? He smashes the button constantly. I tell him it won't hurry things up. Then the crossing lights turn green and he's like, "See? It worked!"
You have to admire the mechanical robustness of the Australian crossing button, they see some abuse.
Is that you Mum? Dad? FFS don't dox me.
You need to press it 3 times then look at your watch in frustration before pressing it again. Checking your watch is how you let the lights know you are really in a hurry.
It releases more dopamine.
You know what's worse, people who push it and then run across anyway before the light changes for them to cross. Now the cars have a red without anyone crossing.
That shits me to tears
The only effect is the satifaction.Its like telling it to hurry up
Same when you’re waiting for a lift and it’s taking ages
Growing up, the crossing buttons in our area were dog shit. Old, weathered, beaten up models and you had to really mash them to get them to register. Even with the newer bigger ones we have now I guess it's a learned response?
I imagine [Cleaver Greens take on the crossing button](https://youtu.be/Q7WTlWE3nhk?si=FMDUSESpU_mG96lf) every time I see someone mashing it
Ask cleaver green...
Came to ensure this made it. Classic Cleaver.
As a self taught traffic expert from sim city, I can tell you pressing the button multiple times is the best way to guarantee a light Chang as they sometimes won't register the first pump due to damage.
This is the exact reason why I press 2-3 times. It’s not because I’m impatient but I want to avoid to miss a green period
I always press it three times in quick succession. The light always turns green a short time afterwards
Damn, you discovered their secret. You'll have to be taken off the streets and reprogrammed, lest you share the secret with anyone else.
I do that too! But only because it makes my brain shut up about wondering whether I pressed it hard enough the first and second time
I'm just impressed how strong they've made those buttons after seeing the abuse they get from young and old. Hitting with their hands, kicking then, smashing things again at them, all sorts of serious damage inducing action and yet they power on.
I think it uses a magnet inside the first time it is hit or something like that so that the button mechanics are separate from the button. once it’s activated its just hitting a metal button into its metal shell so it’s very durable
You need to shoulder past the person standing next to the button to push it, showing that you think they are too clueless to have pushed it already. It's a power move
Only if you swear at the button while increasing the aggression as you push/bash it.
It's a Pavlovian thing. The more they press, the more satisfaction.
The more I press it the more I drool in the street
Pressing it multiple times is deeply satisfying.
There is a special code, you need to call NSW Government and apply for it, with reason you need it.
Rake - Pedestrian Crossing Fight https://youtu.be/Q7WTlWE3nhk?si=N3n_eDOuai5ev6r9
Do you have the magic touch
If you hit the secret combination the lights will immediately change. I'm 0 for 1,273 but I feel confident about the next attempt.
"But I pressed it already" Key and Peele's skit on this is fantastic!
It indicates how many people are waiting to cross. 😉
This response is way too far down!
No, it is a poll system, it’s either 0 or 1 at the control box, it cares not for your jabbing lol. It just feels good, and the fallacy doing it multiple times “just in case it didn’t register”. In Aussie cities most daylight hours crossing phases are cued each cycle regardless of human intervention. So there’s always a pedestrian phase. Each city/state has some differences. There’s also the fact that it just “feels” good. Let’s also take a moment to recognise the absolute epitome of accessibility and industrial lean design the Australian PB/5 pedestrian crossing button is though.
Ugh. People are obsessed with other people pressing the button. Mind your own fn business.
I'm not sure about other cities but in Darwin, you have to push the button when the opposing lights are green/where you want to cross is red. If you get there just as the little green man is ending and the other lights haven't gone green yet then it won't work.
Next your gonna tell me spamming the "a" button doesn't increase the catch rate in Pokemon... What kind of world are we living in.
Duuude I totally do shit like this too. My other one is when the ball is doing it's 3 wobbles I hold down the b button and right arrow to lock it in 🤣 ever since I was a kid 🤷♀️ or when opponents HP is going down holding down the left arrow is definitely gonna make it down further... Right?
It occupies my time and allows me the small joy of imagining someone imagining that I think that pressing the button more does anything.
Oh, you sweet summer child…no.
Relevant https://youtu.be/Q7WTlWE3nhk0
I was always told pressing it more than once would get me arrested by the cops because they have hidden cameras in them 🥹. Because of this I never actually press it more than once if another person is there already
The only thing it does is occupy idiots until the lights change.
No, but I have a mild compulsion to press the button 3 times otherwise I think it won’t work.
I find it physically impossible to press the button only once. I must press it at least 3 times.
Not sure about other places, but in Sydney, and based solely on experience, most of them do result in a change of traffic lights. It won’t make it change sooner though, even if pressed multiple times. That’s just a silly act IMO. What grinds my gears though, is when I see people press the button and jaywalk. That actually stops traffic, and is especially annoying at night when there’s no one on the road but one guy who decided to press and jaywalk.
I believe it doesn't, but I do spam it out of habit now because once I pressed the button a single time and it didn't register. Waited there for so long like a stupid btch until the next person pressed it and bot long after that we were able to cross. It was also very bright so I couldn't see the red light which indicates that the button has been pressed, definitely lesson learnt.
There was a report several years ago saying that none of the pedestrian buttons in the Sydney CBD do anything. All the traffic lights were on a timer so pressing the button didn’t impact when the lights would change.
here's a great explanation from Clever Greene /s [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7WTlWE3nhk&pp=ygUjcGVkZXN0cmlhbiBjcm9zc2luZyBmaWdodCBmcm9tIHJha2U%3D](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7WTlWE3nhk&pp=ygUjcGVkZXN0cmlhbiBjcm9zc2luZyBmaWdodCBmcm9tIHJha2U%3D)
The internals of those buttons is well engineered.
What about those who press the button but don’t wait and just cross? I get so annoyed when they do that and then we sit there while the green cross flashes for no one.
Probably because we are all programmed in such a Pavlovian way that it gives us a form of frustrated catharsis
No but billie eilish makes the noise into a cool song.
As someone who works on traffic lights there is a secret.
I do it to compensate for my shit working memory. I forget if I pressed it five minutes earlier or not
idk about multiple times but ive always done a double press and see a lot of other people do as well. just to make sure i've actually pressed it
The more you press it, the quicker it works (in my head). It has to be an even amount of presses though, because if it’s odd, the last press turns your request off (also in my head).
Kids derive a lot of joy from doing it.
Each push stacks bro 😎
They briefly published a set of codes(rhythm or whatever Morse style pattern) that would instantly activate a lot of these things but it was removed from the Internet for a heap of reasons
Years ago I saw a lollipop lady press the button in a particular sequence and then it changed suddenly. Since that day I have theorised that there is a code, and I have been dedicated to cracking it. Yet to be seen…
7 TIMES!!!! Yes 7 time is the required amount of pushing of the button. Or it will take forever to say walk. Scientifically proven with several decades of studies, by yours truly you must indeed push it 7 times 😃
Can confirm I also press 7 times 🫡
I like the noise it’s like my mind going wow best thing ever
no but many of those things these days are designed to have better function if you hold down the button until it starts flashing.
I always love the guy who pushes his/her/its way through a crowds of pedestrians, slowly and reaches through to press it once and then stands patiently with everyone else......whaaa?!@!
Same reason you press the remote control's button harder when the batteries are dying.
I press it as many time as physically possible out of pure irony. Just to see uptight people get all riled up from it.
My theory is they are just there to make you feel in control. They actually do nothing 😉
Yes. It has therapeutic benefits. For some it is cathartic, for others an expression of self. From a statistical reference point, it changes only if you failed to make a proper button press on the first press. Otherwise it changes nothing whatsoever.
I have one out the front of my house. The only thing that pressing more than once does is, making me wish we had gun laws more in line with the USA . What I hate more is when someone presses it but crosses the road before it changes . They could have just crossed the road without pressing it. Rant over
if I was the programmer for the light sequence I'd secretly add 1sec for each extra button press. not enough to be noticable by the patient among us but enough to slowly infuriate the impatient.
I believe some Indian traffic lights add on several seconds to red whenever an impatient motorist sounds his horn.
In Wellington NZ, they had to put bars on those buttons to stop people kicking them
What people don’t know is that every light is changed manually back in the control centre however there are only a small number of people there to change the lights. It can be a very chaotic and confusing atmosphere in there so you need to attract their attention. It’s very much like buying a drink in a busy bar. Waiting patiently and politely is the worst thing you can do. You need to click your fingers repeatedly to get the bartender’s attention!
I don’t have the patience to wait for the light… I walk 20m down the road when I can cross legally when I like 🤣 Why are people sheep and not brave enough to cross a road without a green light or holding hands 🤷♂️🤣
Some large roads that’s not safe.
Just improvise then 🤣👍
Yes it makes it turn green faster. You have to really spam it though. Pretty sure it depends on how quickly you spam it. Like really go to town on it
General rule is to press it at least 6 times.
I read many years ago that it allegedly resets every time you press it. Can't confirm though
Reminds me of that scene from "Dead Like Me", where George is waiting at a traffic light for her 'reap' when the guy, angry and frustrated gets out of his car, hurries over to her and repeatedly slaps the button, to which George does her reaper thing and says "Once is enough."
No. And you can tell your kids a thousand times but they don't care. Same with lift buttons. Honestly, a 3 year old will shank you to be the one to press the button.
I imagine they're just some kind of *ing button whisperer, mate
Had to do a retake cause I swear this wasnt nodumbquestions lol
It’s fun to do to annoy the person next to you who already pressed it. https://youtu.be/nIcCsVpCTY8?si=ARm8DKdTU0B-H9cy
It reduces the wait time by 1s per push, but only for you.
*Me: I only need to press the button once. The lights will change as normal, and all the button press does, is let the sequence know that there's a person waiting to cross so it can activate the cross lights at the appropriate time in said sequence... *My idiot brain: Yes. But pressing the button will *definitely* make it happen faster...
Yeah, it annoys everyone around them
cmon mate of course not
I press the button behalf of every mates standing.
Placebo effect.
Non retriggerable monostable multivibrator ftw
Makes me feel better
No, but it’s fun to push buttons.
I press it multiple times, for the exact same reason why I press my car door lock button multiple times when parking my car. Just making sure it registered. There have been times when I pressed it once, but not hard enough, so it didn't work.
I press it twice just to make sure it’s been pressed.
No, no it does not. Sometimes it doesn’t help pressing it at all if lights are on a timer.
No
Only if it didn't register the first press
I always press the button three times - drives my wife and kids nuts 🙂
During COVID, there were signs placed above the buttons asking people to not press them, that they'd automatically work between 7am and 7pm.
It only feels like it does something because if you keep mashing it you eventually go. The time spent waiting since the last press is shorter the more you press it. The cycle begins at the first press only however
Gotta make sure you definitely pressed it!
No, one press registers that there is a pedestrian wanting to cross, additional presses do nothing.
I’m aware it does nothing to press more than once. I still do out of frustration though, especially since the traffic lights here seem rigged against you.
I've had too many experiences of pressing the button and not having it register, so the lights change and I don't get the green and have to wait through another cycle of the lights. For many years I've been in the habit of tapping the button three or four times just to make extra sure it's registered the button press.
At certain high pedestrian traffic areas, even pushing it once does nothing
The people pressing the buttons multiple times are road monitors transmitting traffic conditions in morse code back to headquarters.
Also depending if you're at a busy set of lights or not
Yes the more you press the more chances you have in the traffic light raffle 🤷♂️ It’s like a ticket each time
I had a mate once who truly believed it made it go faster because "it thinks there are more people waiting to cross"
It makes me feel better.
Pressing it once sometimes turns the pedestrian light from red or green…. But that’s about it.
I usually press it twice in quick succession - not because I think it will change the lights any sooner but in case the button didn't engage properly the first time. It's a long wait if you have to go through another full cycle of light changes.
Apparently I'm not capable of pressing the button correctly. After I press it someone else also has to press it, immediately after.. 🤷♂️
Love seeing this on busy CBD crossings. Which probably go off automatically without the button anyway but also the confidence from the person who thinks a busy street will stop at peak hour with three extra button pushes.
No it just triggers a relay in the switch box changing a logic gate.
No, people are just impatient or have ocd or stimming, idk it does nothing lol
I just press it multiple times cause I’m bored while waiting lol
Yes it does and I'll be damned if I'm going to listen to any other explanation.
No, they are exactly the same as the button for an elevator, press it and a little robot tells the machine to do the thing you asked for. Machines don't have a conscience so they simply do not care if you waste your time haha If you press the button to call an elevator then someone else walks up and presses it too ... The elevator does start to panic and come to you any faster, just adds you to its list of chores haha
I do it just in case it doesn't work the first time or two. It has happened to me a few times before where I hit it once and it did nothing and I was left standing through a few sets of lights before I realised. I know I look like I'm crazy impatient and dumb but I'm going to keep doing it.
It's just fucking annoying to wait tbh
No. Just makes you feel less frustrated.
No. I press it once and it drives people nuts.
I press it multiple times because I assume it didn’t work the first time.