The buttons are prominently there to meet ADA (Americans with disabilities Act) or ACA (Accessable Canada Act).

Buttons at intersections help people with mobility issues to cross at dedicated crosswalks or crossways safely, most buttons extend the cross time when pressed.

For people that have visual imperments the buttons will generally activate a chirp sound, which helps with a "haptic feedback" of where crosswalks might be or in which direction to proceed.

Anyways, they have become so ubiquitous that they are pretty much expected everywhere, so much so that people don't see them as accessible infrastructure (which is a pretty good thing TBH).

I don't know that they affect the timing of the traffic lights, but I know that some of them won't change to the "walk" signal if nobody pushed the button.

I think every crosswalk should have those retractable bollards.

Depends on the location. Some places the lights turn to walk at regular intervals no matter what, the button only activates the beeping. But in my city the crosswalks never say walk unless someone pressed the button first.

Same thing with elevators. The door close button only works in a fraction of elevators.

I’ve seen all kinds.

Some will instantly change the lights and give cars a red.

Some will trigger the lights after a period of time - maybe synced to another traffic light, or a timer so it doesn’t change too quickly/often.

Some won’t actually cause the lights to change any sooner, but pressing the button will cause the chirping sound to play for people with visual impairments when the light finally changes.

And sometimes they’re broken and trigger the lights even when nobody pushed it. Those are fun when you’re driving a car.

yes, unless they're broken. some will wait until the next natural cycle of the lights, depending on timing (rush, non-rush).

The answer from this side of the pond is: it depends...

If the pedestrian crossing is a single road, the buttons definitely do work. They do have a minimum timer as to how long they have to be red to cars since last time, but other than that, they do work.

The places where they don't work are junctions that are more complicated than a T (including a T). Basically where the flow of car traffic is already controlled by street lights, the buttons do nothing and pedestrians still have to wait their turn like cars do.

Years ago, the buttons in my town were simple things that gave no feedback, and many of them were broken and stayed broken.

Just about all of them have been upgraded to buttons that beep and flash when you push them. It's very obvious when those break, and so the buttons are now maintained much better.

The ones in Cambridge Mass used to turn the lights almost immediately. I know because I pushed one and then changed my mind and lots of Boston drivers were happy to share their opinions on my decision.

Don't know if that's still the case.

It might depend on the time of day.
Many of this begging-buttons are only active during times of low pedestrian frequency where I live, during other times the lights just turn green each time during the overall traffic light cycle.
Might also depend on other factors, the traffic lights are individually programmed to fit the specific needs at each location.

if you're blind or hard of hearing? absolutely.

They do.

But repeatedly pressing them does not make them work any faster.

Depends on where you are. The ones near me actually do something. The pedestrian lights do not change to Walk unless a button is pushed.

In many cases, it activates the crossing signal for the entire intersection as well. As in, traffic will stop in all directions and you as a pedestrian can cross diagonally without issue.

Every municipality is different.

Some do nothing except beep and vibrate for visually impaired people. That style, try holding it down for 3 seconds. When you get the walk sign you should get audio and tactile feedback.

Some lights will not change to walk unless you press the button. Some only exhibit the behaviour at night.

Here's a video of Nic Laporte studying them in Vancouver, BC, and here we have Bike ones in addition to standard pedestrian ones.

As others have said, it depends on location. Where I live in the US, the crosswalk won't turn green for pedestrians unless the button was pushed. If it's an intersection where traffic primarily flows on one street, and the traffic lights only change when the occasional car from the other street, the traffic light will never tell traffic to stop, and your crosswalk will never turn green. You have to push the button to signal the lights to change.

Some of them work. What really annoys me is when there's an induction loop for cars that makes the traffic light change faster.

Alls I can say is that they do near me. There is definately a difference between pushing it and not on an empty street. Now I think it has no more effect than a car sensor being activated though outside of the walk sign.

I wish designers would realize pedestrians are not going to wait a full cycle to cross and often all pedestrian lights are doing is holding up traffic for people who have already crossed.

Aren't they for blind people, as there's a thing under that spins until the light turns green, so they can touch it to know when to go?

If it's a busy intersection, chances are you're only allowed to cross when the cars get switched to go in parallel to you.

If it's a normal street, but still with a high volume of pedestrians, then there's likely a sensor to detect waiting pedestrians. Also depends on how new the traffic light installation is and how much the municipality spends on this.
I think, the sensor also allows detecting the number of pedestrians waiting, so they can speed it up.

If it's a street where pedestrians only cross sporadically or an old installation, then the button is likely to work and that you have to press it to ever be allowed to cross. Running a sensor all day just isn't worth it.

Obviously, the specifics depend on the region, but I feel like these are rules of thumb that make sense pretty much everywhere...

Depends on what features they have and how they are set up.

Where I live there are a few very different setups.

Some crosswalks have no buttons and automatically activate each times the lights cycle on a set pattern.

Some have a button and if you press it the cross traffic light will most likely change on avout 30 seconds and you will be able to cross. If you press it immediately after it chsnges back you have to wait a couple minutes, but not a long time.

One that I use doesn't change the stoplight rotation but pressing the button is necessary for the crosswalk light to come on and it keeps cross traffic from getting a green light as fast as when the crosswalk isn't used. The intersection used to stop cross traffic when you pushed the button and I have no idea why they changed it.

Where I live, the old ones do something, but the new ones don't. Decades ago, most places didn't have complex traffic networks or need them. Individual areas and sections adapted to the needs of the local population. Today, we view traffic design from more of a systemic lens. We try to route cars through specific thoroughfares to optimize traffic times, and we regulate red lights to accomodate the flows of traffic.

I think some buttons worked or are there in plans to be put to work. Or maybe semaphores with button were just bought on bulk even if the button is not used at that location? Probably a mix of anything we can imagine.

It's individual at each intersection where I live, and as other comments have mentioned even varies at different times.

I've timed a few and found that even if it does give pedestrians a cycle without the button being pushed, at some of them pushing the button gives it to us a bit faster.

Some are functional and some aren't. Where I live, at all the major intersections, they're just decoration. However, at an intersection with a smaller street crossing a main one, you will not get a walk sign across the larger road without pushing the button.

If you don’t push the button, the pedestrian red light will stay red indefinitely. If you do push the button, the light will turn green, some time in the distant future. In Europe it’s a bit better than in the USA.

In France, it's useless. Your experience may be different.

The ones near my home actually work but in different ways based on location. At some intersections they turn on the corresponding walk sign for the pressed button and leave the others as "Don't Walk". At an intersection near a school, they turn all traffic lights red and turn on walk signs in all directions.