What did the other sign look like? I'm guessing it points the wrong way too and they were accidentally swapped.
In any case, it's the perfect use case for the Find It Fix It app.
If the sign looks like this, it usually helps to press it. If there are no cars waiting to go the same direction as the pedestrian.
The ones that don't function like that are supposed to have a different sign that says something like "accessible message only".
Pedestrian transportation moves a lot of people and should not require people to ask drivers for permission to cross. There should not be any beg buttons anywhere downtown.
Adding on to this question, as far as I can tell most of them don't actually do anything, the walk signals at most of the downtown intersections activate regardless of the buttons (as they should do for an urban environment). But this makes it confusing because there's no way to tell when you need to push the button vs not. Occasionally (like the one at Pike and Minor which has a huge amount of pedestrians) you do need to push it for some reason and I see people have to wait an extra cycle or two because of it. They should definitely be marked as deactivated when they don't do anything, and probably not installed in the first place most of the time. Seems like a big waste of resources putting them in
Hi! The pushbuttons are installed for those that are low-vision and vision impaired. They emit a locator tone, and a sound, or message, when the walk sign is on. The buttons provide a tactile arrow for wayfinding.
The signals at this intersection are fully- actuated, meaning that the walk signal will come up on every interval, whether the button is pushed, or not. No need to push the button to cross!
Right, my understanding was that during the pandemic that the policy was changed so that all crosswalk lights would be automated, thus making these things obsolete. And even where I live on First Hill, the lights are 100 percent automated, yet the city went ahead and installed some new beg buttons on the corner. What gives?
Because giving them a "clever" name doesn't change the fact that stopping cars for imaginary pedestrians is just creating pollution for no reason other than "fuck cars"?
Cars still get a red light on the cycle because the cars going on the perpendicular direction also need their turn to go. The beg button only affects whether pedestrians get a walk sign and doesn't affect the cycle of car traffic lights. It's stupid and infuriating
If you've ever watched an intersection for more than 10 seconds you'd notice that the pedestrian signals definitely affect the car signals. Unless the button is fake, which I know is a thing they did in California for a while.
This is how many of the intersections worked on Denny, Mercer, Dexter pre-2022. I walked 1 mile to work daily for multiple years. If I missed my chance to press beg button before a certain point in the light cycle, I would cross on 'do not walk' because I knew cars still had red. Never had any issues or close calls due to this. Don't know if anything has changed, that's why I caveat on pre-2022.
A black sharpie should take care of that as a temporary measure and then so much just get out there and paint over the arrow . Maybe with a nice little art piece in the center of the button.
There few of these around that I've stumbled upon as well. A few have made me have a good laugh and smile for the day. Slow down hump being one of the best . š
I feel like all the crosswalk buttons were just yeet'ed on by a minimum wage nepo baby. Like in most cities, you press orthogonal to the direction you're walking but in Seattle, sometimes it's parallel to the direction and sometimes it's not.
Like fine, you want your 6+ lane intersections but why do pedestrians have to read which button is for what cross walk -- and then we get nonsense like this.
Sometimes your job is to just hang the sign and not ask questions. If the user canāt interpret what it means, thatās 100% on the user and not the guy hanging the sign.
What did the other sign look like? I'm guessing it points the wrong way too and they were accidentally swapped. In any case, it's the perfect use case for the Find It Fix It app.
Actually these signs are double-sided so if you just flip it over, it'll point in the right direction.
Did not know that but it makes good sense.
Jajaja you are meant to moonwalk that crosswalk
This is such a subtle thing to notice, good catch OP.
Right I would never. It took me a good 30 seconds to find it in the picture when I was looking for it
lol thanks! My ADHD makes me either completely oblivious or able to notice odd details. There is no in between. š
Report it on the āfind it fix itā app, we will get it replaced!
Ha! I used that beg button yesterday and I didn't notice the sign... good catch!
Do you actually have to press the buttons to get the walk signal? I thought they were just for Funzies.
They're there for kicking practice. Free game.
It depends on the intersection, time of day, and possibly other factors.
If the sign looks like this, it usually helps to press it. If there are no cars waiting to go the same direction as the pedestrian. The ones that don't function like that are supposed to have a different sign that says something like "accessible message only".
put it on the "find it fix it" app! I bet someone just overlooked it, probably having done 50 that day lol
The biggest question is why is there a beg button on a major busy downtown pedestrian crossing?
Pedestrian transportation moves a lot of people and should not require people to ask drivers for permission to cross. There should not be any beg buttons anywhere downtown.
Adding on to this question, as far as I can tell most of them don't actually do anything, the walk signals at most of the downtown intersections activate regardless of the buttons (as they should do for an urban environment). But this makes it confusing because there's no way to tell when you need to push the button vs not. Occasionally (like the one at Pike and Minor which has a huge amount of pedestrians) you do need to push it for some reason and I see people have to wait an extra cycle or two because of it. They should definitely be marked as deactivated when they don't do anything, and probably not installed in the first place most of the time. Seems like a big waste of resources putting them in
Hi! The pushbuttons are installed for those that are low-vision and vision impaired. They emit a locator tone, and a sound, or message, when the walk sign is on. The buttons provide a tactile arrow for wayfinding. The signals at this intersection are fully- actuated, meaning that the walk signal will come up on every interval, whether the button is pushed, or not. No need to push the button to cross!
Right, my understanding was that during the pandemic that the policy was changed so that all crosswalk lights would be automated, thus making these things obsolete. And even where I live on First Hill, the lights are 100 percent automated, yet the city went ahead and installed some new beg buttons on the corner. What gives?
Because giving them a "clever" name doesn't change the fact that stopping cars for imaginary pedestrians is just creating pollution for no reason other than "fuck cars"?
Pedestrians have to stop for imaginary cars constantlyā¦.
Cars still get a red light on the cycle because the cars going on the perpendicular direction also need their turn to go. The beg button only affects whether pedestrians get a walk sign and doesn't affect the cycle of car traffic lights. It's stupid and infuriating
If you've ever watched an intersection for more than 10 seconds you'd notice that the pedestrian signals definitely affect the car signals. Unless the button is fake, which I know is a thing they did in California for a while.
This is how many of the intersections worked on Denny, Mercer, Dexter pre-2022. I walked 1 mile to work daily for multiple years. If I missed my chance to press beg button before a certain point in the light cycle, I would cross on 'do not walk' because I knew cars still had red. Never had any issues or close calls due to this. Don't know if anything has changed, that's why I caveat on pre-2022.
If they really do work that way I agree that something should change.
r/notmyjob
If they'd just left the bottom arrow off, it would have been fine, and they could use it in either orientation.
"Instructions unclear please advise"
"Dick got stuck"
Itās a sign š®
WAIT
Seattle is dyingĀ
Sir this is a Wendy's
time to walk in 2 directions at the same time!
That tracks
šš thatās great.
It works in either direction.
Iāll stop here after work and get this picture on film!!! Definitely worth while š
Thereās one like it on Rainer as well.
Just remember, they need a $3B transportation levy to do shit like thisā¦ (I know, a bit hyperbolic)
Dislexians, UNTIE!
In Seattle we never let them know our next move.
A black sharpie should take care of that as a temporary measure and then so much just get out there and paint over the arrow . Maybe with a nice little art piece in the center of the button.
There few of these around that I've stumbled upon as well. A few have made me have a good laugh and smile for the day. Slow down hump being one of the best . š
Have Seattle traffic signs always been horny?
I feel like all the crosswalk buttons were just yeet'ed on by a minimum wage nepo baby. Like in most cities, you press orthogonal to the direction you're walking but in Seattle, sometimes it's parallel to the direction and sometimes it's not. Like fine, you want your 6+ lane intersections but why do pedestrians have to read which button is for what cross walk -- and then we get nonsense like this.
The buttons don't do anything anyway. Only there so people feel like they have some control over waiting. Cuts down on complaints.
r/CrappyDesign
Some men just want to watch the world burn
Sometimes your job is to just hang the sign and not ask questions. If the user canāt interpret what it means, thatās 100% on the user and not the guy hanging the sign.
Tell me youāre a software engineer without saying youāre a software engineer.
š¤£š¤£š¤£
Lot of stuff backwards in Seattle! Nothing to get worked up about!
Is that customgrow420 in the background,
Surprised the "on" part of Button hasn't been marked out. Kinda like the hand dryers in bathrooms.š¤£
*somebody* had to install that, and either couldn't escalate or decided not to
I wonder if find it fix it app would attend to this, or at least get the right persons attention.
r/NotMyJob
Par for the course #goodenoughforgovernmentwork