At least in Madison, the beg buttons serve another purpose: They lengthen
the time of the WALK and/or green time to cross. I.E. they make the red
longer on the cross street to allow pedestrians -- who are slower to clear
the intersection than people operating cars -- more time.

I can tell you from experience that the light closest to where I get off
the westbound Campus Dr buses -- University Ave, Farley, and University Bay
Dr -- would not be possible to cross safely unless you pushed the button.
You still can't dawdle getting across University Ave without the WALK
light, but you'd barely make it to the median without it.

Similarly, I'm sure people have had trouble getting across East Washington
on a bike when starting form a dead stop unless there is a pedestrian
crossing at the same time. I'm not suggesting bicyclists should have to
shimmy over to the curb to push the button, but it DOES change the length
of the green.

Robbie Webber
Transportation Policy Analyst
608-263-9984 (o)
608-225-0002 (c)
[email protected]
All opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of
my employer or any other group with which I am affiliated.

On Thu, Sep 3, 2015 at 2:09 PM, <[email protected]> wrote:

>
> www.citylab.com/navigator/2015/09/ask-citylab-do-walk-buttons-actually-do-anything/400760/
>
> _______________________________________________
> Bikies mailing list
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> http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
>
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