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People who press the button at the pedestrian crossing and then cross anyway right after: how do you think the 1997 Kyoto protocol affected the industrial economics of the late 2010's? (self.askuk)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Dicska to c/[email protected]

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On a slightly more serious note: I really wonder what's going on in your mind when you press that button and cross anyway. Is it just because "I don't care", or is there more to it? If so: what?

EDIT: In case it's because you don't care: why do you press the button then?

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's only one light controlled crossing near where I live, and it's because the crossing is either badly designed or set up.

It's not an urban crossing with hordes of pedestrians constantly crossing - it was installed probably because of the bus stop on the other side of the road from the old people's sheltered accomodation, and also because at school times kids cross there to get the bus.

The problem is that the crossing might not have been used for several minutes, but when you reach it and press the button, instead of instantly starting the lights changing, it makes you wait for a full minute or so before starting to change the lights...by which time, there's been a gap in the traffic and you can cross anyway. This almost malicious design of crossing is going to make this inevitable. It is the pedestrian that is in the howling wind and pissing rain, motorists are in climate controlled 1500kg suits of armour and quite frankly can wait for 20 seconds.

[–] Dicska 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I'm really just guessing but I read that there's a bit more to it when installing these lights. Oftentimes, engineers set up a timing system so that a series of lights will turn green (to cars) in a chain, allowing traffic to get through and not idle a lot on a long, straight stretch of road. So first it's green on one end, then assuming cruising speed the second one turns green a bit later a few hundred metres down, then the third a bit later, and so on. I'm assuming buttonless, automatic lights.

Now, I can imagine that these work the same way, only that they don't turn green (to the pedestrian) when nobody is around, pressing buttons (making the traffic pass even faster, reducing the amount of fumes they leave). Once you press the button, maybe it still tries to maintain the same timing and it waits for its turn.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

But in this instance there's no series of lights. There is nothing to sequence. The only traffic light within literally 5 miles of this one is a traffic light that controls a single lane stretch into a piece of dead-end road, about a mile and a half away and not even on the same route. The next nearest traffic light is in a different town.