Crosswalk at Kingsbury and Chicago

John Hilkevitch’s column today touched on the annoyance of crosswalk buttons in Pushing crossers’ buttons. The column questions whether the buttons have any legitimate use -- and goes on to answer whether the buttons have any impact on the signal timing. But the interesting question is whether the crosswalk button is a legitimate way to control traffic.

Hilkevitch references the button being introduced “more than 50 years ago in the United States as the great equalizer between cars and pedestrians.” But are they rather the great inequalizer? Crosswalk buttons always assume cars are present and never assume pedestrians are present (regardless of location), making pedestrians take special action to cross the street. And while a single car can cruise through a green light at an intersection, a single pedestrian will always have to stop and push the button and wait.

Other important questions to ask:

Is the city planning on adding more buttons, and is it confusing to have them in the city period, since it’s generally assumed pedestrians will get a signal? I’ve noticed random button-intersections in such pedestrian-heavy neighborhoods as Lakeview, River North and Kingsbury Park after waiting for the signal for several minutes, only to realize I have to push a button to get it. I have seen other confused pedestrian miss the cycle because they don’t realize there’s a button there either.

Is this another signal from the Traffic Management Authority, along with the disappearance of crosswalks and the retiming of intersections, that cars will take precedence over people in the City of Chicago?

Leave a comment and list what intersections you’ve noticed crosswalk buttons where they don’t belong, and let’s tell the city we don’t want them there.