Pressing "Wait" button at pedestrian crossing

[marmaduke]

If you do not press the "Wait" button at a pelican crossing, does that mean the traffic lights will not go red for the cars, letting you cross?

[SpecialAgent]

Yes, its not automatic.

[GuavaHalf]

True at strictly pedestrian crossings, but not so at many junctions controlled by lights. In most cases the button does nothing it is just there to encourage pedestrians to wait for the green man.

[Gef]

I live near a very busy crossroads and if nobody has pressed the wait button the traffic gets priority.

[GuavaHalf]

Gef - I live near a very busy crossing - five roads meet!. The buttons there make absolutely no difference at all. I guess your town planners are more pedestrian friendly than mine. :-(

[brachiopod]

It depends if they're 'active phased' or 'passive phased'.

Some will not go to the pedestrian phase unless you press the button.

Other lights (especially at junctions or where several roads meet) will have the pedestrian phase programmed in to the sequence, so that actually 'pushing the button' makes no difference.

[Oneeyedvic]

according to a previous posting I read somewhere on this site - by seeing the colours of the ridged paving slabs at the crossing you can tell whether it pushing the button will have any impact. This was for guide dogs as they an diffentiate between light and dark.

 

Personally I don't think it is true - but it does make a good story.

[Sensa113]

Slightly off topic, but a good fact,

If you feel under the box of a pedestrian crossing there is a little knob, when the green man comes on, it turns around - this is for blind people in case the beep isn't working.