Who hasn’t seen kids wildly pressing the crosswalk button a dozen or more times as they wait for the light to change? They hope that pressing the button repeatedly will speed up the process so they don’t have to wait so long.
It doesn’t work that way.
But, why not?
It’s a good example of how the design and function of something doesn’t match the user’s wants. From a purely engineering viewpoint, pressing the button switches the next green light sequence from standard to alternate. Standard is a short period of time suitable for cars to cross the intersection. Alternate is a longer amount of time that a pedestrian would need. After the first press, pushing the button again and again does nothing.
Back when traffic lights were controlled by cams and relays, having an alternate, longer green cycle was a huge breakthrough.
Isn’t it now archaic? In the digital age, there’s no reason why pushing the button repeatedly couldn’t be processed differently. More like a game, no?