POLL: Do you press the pedestrian button more than once?

Posted 21 March, 2023 Lauren Ferrone

In a rush, you reach the pedestrian lights, ready to cross the road. Instinctively, you give the button a little tap. The red person is still staring back at you. You press the button a few more times until you find yourself hitting it a little harder.

So, does pressing the pedestrian button multiple times help you get to the other side of the road any faster?

According to RAA Senior Manager of Safety and Infrastructure Charles Mountain, pressing the button more than once won’t make a difference.

The wait time varies depending on how busy the road is and when the button is pushed. Some places, like pedestrian areas or shopping zones, have reduced wait times outside peak hours to give pedestrians priority.

“For instance, on busy roads in peak hour, it may be as long as 120 seconds from the time the button is pushed until the signals change to keep traffic moving,” Mr Mountain says.

“Outside of peak hours, there’ll generally be a significantly shorter wait time.”

In South Australia, a computerised system runs pedestrian crossing sequences. Here’s the good news: your poor hand can rest if you’re walking in the city.

“At many intersections, particularly in Adelaide’s CBD, it’s not necessary to press the button at all between 7am and 7pm, as the pedestrian phase is set to come on automatically with the corresponding traffic movement,” Mr Mountain says.

Why do people press it repeatedly?

Pressing the pedestrian button multiple times is like the ‘do not press the red button’ scenario. The first thing someone generally want to do is press it.

Psychology studies have shown the reason people press the pedestrian button – or any button –more than once is generally to exercise a degree of control.

In 2018, Dr Ellen Langer, a psychology professor at Harvard University, researched the idea of pressing buttons. She dubbed the pedestrian button as a ‘placebo’ button, which has no real effect when pressed multiple times.

Whether you press the button twice and then one more time for good luck, or find yourself pushing until the light turns green, Dr Langer claims that, for human beings in general, “doing something feels better than doing nothing”.