In my area (San Francisco Bay) it depends on how much pedestrian traffic is expected. I live in the suburbs and, as I said, the walking light only goes on if the button is pressed. But if I go to San Francisco itself, lights are all on a timer (and there are no buttons at all).
Comment on What are some common everyday examples of this phenomenon? (see body)
Cornucopiaofplenty@lemmy.world 7 months agoCertainly around my area in a UK city there are plenty which automatically go to a green man even if no button was pressed. This is usually the case on more complicated intersections where in order to keep traffic flowing correctly that pedestrian crossing would be free at some point anyway, so they just put the green man cycle on by default. Of course they still put a button for pedestrian-satisfying reasons!
lunarul@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world 6 months ago
There is a set of lights near me at a cross roads which has an extra stream of traffic comkng from a row of shops off one of the roads so theres north south traffic, east west traffic and then traffic from the west that came from a little side road and out of the west entrance. If that makes sense. So 3 states the lights can be in.
Anyway, the lights are automatic, they cycle in the same pattern around the 3 states and the walk/cycle pedestrian lights follow that pattern. However, if a pedestrian presees the button after the extra stream of traffic from the shops has gone, an extra state is added where no cars can go in any direction and all of the pedestrian walk/cycle lights come on briefly allowi g pedestrians to cross in all directions.
Always found that mildly interesting.