What we have are even worse than placebo buttons. They do work and you’ll never get a crossing light without pressing the button, but they actively make you wait longer to cross compared to if they were automatic. The buttons, to my knowledge, do not affect the main traffic light timings at all (I haven’t times it with a stopwatch or anything, but I cross a few of the same intersections very often and have never perceived a timing difference between button press and no button press).
I know in my neighborhood that at similar intersections, the traffic light switches fairly quickly if there are no pedestrians, but if you press the pedestrian button it stays green longer so pedestrians of all ages have enough time to get across.
What we have are even worse than placebo buttons. They do work and you’ll never get a crossing light without pressing the button, but they actively make you wait longer to cross compared to if they were automatic. The buttons, to my knowledge, do not affect the main traffic light timings at all (I haven’t times it with a stopwatch or anything, but I cross a few of the same intersections very often and have never perceived a timing difference between button press and no button press).
I know in my neighborhood that at similar intersections, the traffic light switches fairly quickly if there are no pedestrians, but if you press the pedestrian button it stays green longer so pedestrians of all ages have enough time to get across.