Do these buttons really work? Like, all the time?
At some street crossings here in Berlin I get the impression that they're just some placebo to limit your impatience and make you less prone to cross with a red light.
That's probably because the buttons here don't have any tactile feedback. They're touch sensitive and won't make any clic and the light is just a rare occurrence you might find in some of them (and it's completely invisible during the day, if it's there). You really feel like you don't have any way to know if they're even connected to the streetlight system.
Every time I touch them I always try to see whether they're making the light turn green faster and I never ever have that feeling. One should probably approach the thing more scientifically in order to have some sort of closure about them.
That's probably because the buttons here don't have any tactile feedback. They're touch sensitive and won't make any clic and the light is just a rare occurrence you might find in some of them (and it's completely invisible during the day, if it's there). You really feel like you don't have any way to know if they're even connected to the streetlight system.
Every time I touch them I always try to see whether they're making the light turn green faster and I never ever have that feeling. One should probably approach the thing more scientifically in order to have some sort of closure about them.