Road design, safety and Vision Zero

[plam]

2) I'm pretty sure the Gaukel crossing over Charles St has been replaced with a beg button, and gives an otherwise permanent green to traffic on Charles St. I just watched it for 2.5 minutes and the light never cycled, while about 20 people (none of whom pressed the button) decided to wait for a few seconds each and then just cross since there was no traffic. Maybe someone who lives in Charlie West or uses this crossing often can confirm.

Do people really not understand that they won’t get a green if they don’t press the button? I regularly observe this on King at the Waterloo Spur. Now, to be clear, I don’t object to people crossing against a red hand when there is no conflicting traffic and I sometimes do it myself, but I don’t understand how people don’t understand that the button is required in order to get a walking person.

Of course, regular readers here will know that I think many of these should be reversed to be permanently green for pedestrians, until vehicle traffic activates the light using sensors in the road.

There are quite a few buttons in KW that say "for audible signal only" so it's just a bit confusing to be inconsistent that way.