That’s right, NA:
We’re fundamentally better.
Jeff Speck, who once authored a walkability study for New Albany — a document now being depleted, one precious page at a time, as toilet paper in Jeff Gahan’s mayoral washroom — is quoted here on the topic of push-button crosswalk signals: How Push-to-Walk reduces the quality of walkable neighborhoods.
It is almost always the cities with push-button crossings that need the most help … push-buttons almost always mean that the automobile dominates, as they are typically installed in conjunction with a new signal timing in which crossing times are shorter and less frequent. Far from empowering walkers, the push button turns them into second-class citizens; pedestrians should never have to ask for a light.
And boy, does the auto dominate in New Albany.
There is reason to believe that quite often, push-button at crosswalks do nothing, and in fact are virtual placebos.
MANY CROSSWALK SIGNAL BUTTONS DON’T DO ANYTHING ANYMORE (Today I Found Out)
Does pressing the pedestrian crossing button actually do anything?, by Tom de Castella (BBC News Magazine)
My sense is that in New Albany, these push-buttons are enabled and actually do something. I base this observation on lengthy waits at crosswalks downtown, where the buttons (as the one pictured above) chronically malfunction.
There are a great many of them.
