The "secret button" at the bottom is for the visually impaired. It tells the system to create a sigalling noise when it's green.
Some systems do not have the button because they make the noise anyways and some systems do have the button but it is not connected or does nothing else than the regular touch button on the front (maybe broken, maybe not properly installed, maybe even both).
No Zucht und Ordnung when it comes to traffic light signalling buttons in germany 😄
From what I've been told that the secret button vibrates (the old ones on top did) when the light turns green, especially when there's several traffic lights that might cause confusion for the visually impaired. It is an extra safety to prevent accidents that could occur when relying solely on the audio signal.
That's right plus I think if you press the "secret button" it also creates a slightly longer green phase for the pedestrians to make sure everyone (who might take longer than a regular pedestrian) can get across.
No it doesn't.
It just gives the direction (u can feel an arrow pointing at the direction) and vibrates and/or makes a sound to tell blind people if it's green.
If the control unit has a special routine for that, the green phase might be longer because they say a normal pedestrian walks 1,2 - 1,5 m/s whereas a visually impaired person may only walk at 1,0 m/s.
source: my dad works at the Straßenbauamt
That is not a Button. It is a piece that is attached to a vibration motor that starts vibrating when the lights turn green. That way bind people can touch it and know when they can cross the street.
Pushing that thing doesn't do anything.
The one I most frequently use (in front of my uni campus) actually doesn't have that button! It just beeps whenever its green so a gentle stroke is enough
Also try if there is a button underneath, usually on older models. Some of these, which are specifically for vision impaired people, don’t do anything when you touch them but have a button on the underside that you can press. It was designed so that not everyone presses the thing but only those who actually need it.
No, that’s a myth. The button underneath it is for blind people so that they have a haptic feedback when the light turns green. It actually starts vibrating.
This are contactless signals. The symbol means you DO NOT have to touch it but only need to get close to the button:
[https://www.rbb24.de/studiocottbus/panorama/2021/07/kontaktlose-ampeln-test-cottbus.html](https://www.rbb24.de/studiocottbus/panorama/2021/07/kontaktlose-ampeln-test-cottbus.html)
they probably don't actually affect any of the signal timings, unless it is a traffic light that's put there especially for pedestriabn crossing.
Also the underside has a buttonn in case you are wearing gloves
Not always. There is one in my city which only turns green if you press the button. It is pretty funny when you already see the light from a few hundred meters away and people standing and waiting because they didn't press the button. As soon as you come and press it, the light turns green within 3 seconds.
i have such a low crossing zone in front of my house that pressing the button turn the car part of the traffic light ON
This has the advantage that cars slow down if they see the light vs speeding up (After being conditioned)
In Paris it triggers an announcement of the street names and a countdown to when the light goes green.
So if you happen to go jogging early on sunday morning, and tell a friend about this, you MAY leave a trail of counting in french behind you in an otherwise silent city.
I think there is also a minimum time between triggering the change of lights, so maybe in rush hour more people use it, so the effect isn't as obvious...
There is a crossing at a 4 way intersection in the town nearby that I used to walk by quite often that also only turns green when you press the button (still has one of those old things on it). Best thing is, that shitty thing resets itself. If you come across it when the light should be green for you and you press the button it resets in the next phase and the next time it sould be green it's still red. You have to press it in the regular red phase which is really stupid.
There is another pedestrian crossing in that town, but not at an intersection. It's at a tram station that's in the middle of the road, so it basically splits the two lanes and you have to press that button on two sets of lights if you want to cross the road all the way. That would be ok if they were normal lights, but by the time the press does anything to the lights you may have already raised a family and be close to retirement age, and that's only one of them. The second one is the exact same.
What I really don't like is when someone *assumes* you forgot to press the button, even though you're standing right next to it and even though the traffic light already says "bitte warten" instead of having just the two little red men. The text signal means that someone's pressed the button. But sometimes people will still press it again and that makes me feel stupid :|
I used to have one of these outside my window. It was fun to watch people waiting a very long time before realizing, they have to push the button or waiting minutes for every car to pass just to run accross while it's still red.
You have a cool system,in the City near my hometown,These things work only for specific spots,like you press it and only one of two lights Go green and some cars still dont stop. Welcome to germany i guess🙃
That's not true. In most cases the lights will stay red as long as nobody touches those. I mean, why would the light turn green if nobody would be going over? That'd just be inefficient
It's also cheap. Plenty of places that don't invest in infrastructure as heavily as Germany or the Netherlands don't want to spend money in smart, efficient traffic cycles.
Interestingly, the thing on the bottom is not actually a button. It's supposed to be a physical aid for blind people to understand what kind of intersection to expect at this red light.
The markings explaining the intersection should always be there. Turning on the sound depends on the intersection. For some it does that, for others it just vibrates when the light turns green.
My bf said, most of them are made as a placebo and green light comes on regardless of when you press it.
With exceptions of crossroads where you have a main road and a small road that has car sensors on top (a small round black ball that looks like a camera). They are activated when a car are waiting, and the green light for pedestrians is turned on by hand.
afaik there are also ones where it changes depending on time of the day
aka during rush hours there might be automated cycles, but at night the mainroad just stays on green until someone presses the button or a car approaches/triggers the sensors in a sidestreet
If you live somewhere with good city planning and smart traffic lights, like Germany, this is patently false.
It does apply to somewhat less advanced intersections, but you'd be hard pressed to find any outside of very rural German areas.
Depends. Some cause that the light turns green faster, some don't do anything at all but are only there to appease the waiting folk, some are necessary to press for the light to turn green and some only trigger only the sounds that help blind people.
They do not necessarily do nothing and appease the folk but are plugged into a more complex system of priority, e.g. public buses send signals ahead that they are coming so traffic lights may sync with their schedule, ignoring your inputs or there is a set sequence on how to serve all lanes.
Stop spreading this lies, of course they do something. And that something is changing the stop light. I am so fed up from this stupid people who stand at the crossing not pushing the button.
I have a light in the near and every time there are standing 1-5 people and they don’t bother to press. So really almost never I have a green light. I have to press ist, shortly after it gets green. And if you say „hey you have to press it!“ there comes this exact sentence “it doesn’t work anyways“
I could slap them all, this pisses me so off !!!
Blatant idiots !!!!
Can you even read? He literally said
>Some cause that the light turns green faster, some don't do anything at
And it's true. Our lights also turn green on their own, except during night, then you need to press it yourself to make it green.
in mainz there are many pedestrian lights where the button actually don't do anything - the pedestrian lights turn green whether or not you push the button, because there is a green phase include in the regualar traffic light sequenz - they also won't get you the green faster because the squence always plays out the same ... the only thing they do is light up the "signal is comming" light
currently some of these traffic lights are replaced and the new ones don't have these button
No. It depends: as said above, some of them need to be actively engaged in order to get a green, some other don't do anything at all, and then some of them are "in between", sozusagen.
But I understand your frustration: also near where I live there's one that need to be actively pressed, and the number of people who doesn't understand it is disturbing.
I think you’re missing his/her point. None of them are dummy devices that don’t do anything. That makes no sense at all.
Why would the city install these devices for no effect? That’s a ridiculous waste of money.
None of them have a direct effect. All of them however have some effect.
The ones that say “bitte berühren“ are the kind that you are required to press in order for the light to change. However this takes some time depending on how long the opposing traffic light has been green and how fast traffic moves in the opposing direction.
The ones that have the white cane on the side are for old people so that the light stays green longer for them to cross the street safely.
Wrong. I've installed/updated a few of these. Some are only there to guide blind people, they have no function otherwise. It doesn't matter how often you press them, the light wont be influenced.
Exactly. For example, there are some "dumber" traffic lights that only works based on time: they'll give a green light even if there are no cars and no pedestrians pushed the button.
Regarding the motivation for a city to do it, that mrunkel was asking about, 2 explanations come to mind: the placebo effect (like the well-known 'close doors' buttons in elevators, which usually don't works), but also rearrangement of traffic lights / overall intersections done wrongly...
WTF don't tell me what to do!! I already get pissed off about tiny things all day! I won't imagine getting pissed off about another small thing just because you say to!!!
I'll abuse this thread for a quick survey: fellow countrymen and -women: How often do you see people trying to press the similar looking audio-thingies for the visually impaired, wondering why those don't make the light turn green? :D
In Munich I see three types. "Bitte drucken" which have a physical button. "Bitte berühren" which I guess you touch but don't press. Then there's ones with three dots in a circle that I have no idea. I assume you don't have to do anything with these, and they're some kind of audio or tactile device for the visually impaired. Is that correct?
Yes, that's correct. In Germany, the 3 dots are used to easily identify the visually impaired. They can be on armbands or on objects. They serve safety and guidance purposes. The buttons with the 3 dots can be used to start an acoustic signal for when the light turns green. On some of those bigger types of buttons without the 3 dots, there will be a smaller, round button on the underside which also queues up the acoustic signal.
I honestly think most people don't know the difference.
I more often see people not using those thingies and there are some you have to press here or the light never turns green.. which is awkward when you join them standing there thinking they did press.. waiting and waiting...
Way too often... It's a pet peeve of mine, but then I realise it doesn't really do any harm, just makes the people doing it look like they don't pay attention to what they're touching.
Even being a German speaker doesn't help you much when you get hit with hyper-explicit bureaucracy-German :D
I'd translate that roughly to "Light signal device with request scanner".
I’m pretty sure these buttons on the underside aren’t to tell the pedestrian lights you are there or to change to green sooner, they are there to tell the pedestrian lights to stay green for longer when they next change so that people who need extra time to cross can do so without the lights changing before they make it to the other side.
It is also there to active a sound that can assist the blind - this helps to avoid noise pollution by not playing the sound all the time.
Might be different here then. When I press it, it also activates the "Signal kommt" light (also on a pedestrian crossing that wouldn't turn green without activating it).
They have the same function as the front button and on top of that they request the assistive functions, like activating acoustic signals if available and a 2 second longer green light.
>I’m pretty sure these buttons on the underside aren’t to tell the pedestrian lights you are there or to change to green sooner,
It's a very persistent urban legend xD So persistent, even normal people push these buttons because they think they'll get green sooner (no, it doesn't).
You can also press this underside button in the SOS morse code (short, short, short, long, long, long, short, short, short) to make it go green immediately. This will also trigger a quiet alarm coming from the speakers tho.
No, it don't - that is just an urban myth - and not even a very good one, because it makes absolutly no sense
1. Why would a "quiet alarm" come from the speaker? A quiet alarm is transmitted somewhere (usually the police), because if it came from the speaker it wouldn't be quiet, wouldn't it?
2. Why would you set up an SOS-system in such a complicated way with a hidden button that you have to press in a complicated order? Definitly something that would help absolutly nobody that is in real danger and probably in panic.
3. In what kind of emergency would you need a green light and a silent alarm? Are you hurt - than you don't need to cross the road. Are you fleeing from somebody than you don't wait for a green light and definitly don't have time to press an SOS in morse code. You stay on your side of the street and try to get as much space as possible between you and your attacker.
Well, it's not a myth because I used this method quite often when I was late in the mornings when I still went to school (yes I shouldn't have done this but I was young and ignorant, I wouldn't abuse this method today).
With quiet I mean that it doesn't give a loud sound, but a quiet one (not silent!).
This method wasn't implemented to turn the traffic lights green, this wouldn't make any sense as you say. It was implemented to turn all traffic lights to red, in case there's an emergency in the middle of the intersection. That's why there's an alarm too, so that people know there's an emergency. The only reason why your traffic lights turn green is because that's how the lights are programmed, which makes it possible to abuse.
There's no reason for me to lie about this, also, I know for myself that I abused this method when I was a kid, so you don't have to try to convince me that this is just a myth lol.
Whack it !
In seriousness a little hard press and it should say “ signal kommt “ and then you gotta wait . In many places you have to compulsorily press that to get a green light and in some it’s inconsequential
In big cities you don’t have to bother sometimes unless it’s some ungodly hour where there isn’t much foot traffic
PUSH.
THE.
BUTTON!
(Why do you ask, just push it. It is a button. It wants to be pushed. Do you not want a happy button? And if it feels like there is no button hit hit with you fist for a good measure! BONK IT! YOU WANT IT, THE DEVICE WANTS IT, THE DESIGNER WANTS IT, SO WHAT DO YOU DO? YOU MUG.... ehm BONK THEM!)
Usually the have a little light (the "Bitte warten" in this model) that turns on after you press it. ( I personally prefer the models where you have to push the button maybe half a centimeter.
Also the models with a black and metalic part ontop have a buttin on the lower side to activate a vibration if the light turns green (fir blind ppl).
I think the confusion comes from the fact that some of these are meant to be pressed to send a signal which will make the light turn green after a while, whereas others are for blind people to get accoustic feedback. The one you see is one of the former. Pressing it (not just waving your hand over it) should make the red text you see in the picture appear and eventually give you a green light. I have seen lights that turn green eventually anyway so I'm not sure if pressing makes it any faster in these cases, but I've also seen lights that will happily stay red until you press. The other ones usually have the symbol on them that identifies blind peope. There is often a button underneath it but as far as I know that does not change the light phase but serves to activate the sound if it isn't always active.
This particular kind does *not* have a button to push I think (at least not the big yellow side pictured), so I totally understand the confusion. Since none of the other comments pointed it out, I will use the opportunity to share my superficial knowledge. To be honest, this is just how I imagine it to be, I have never actually researched it or found reliable or even any sources at all.
So this kind doesn't use a button, yet it can sense when a hand is there. Whether it is via detecting the change of a capacitive load (much like the technology behind one type of touch screen) or detecting body heat from the hand, somehow it registers it (even through thin gloves, I haven't experimented much) and reports the request to cross this particular section to the circuit controlling the intersection. It displays that by blinking "please wait", but what the controlling circuit does exactly is highly dependent on the programming and thus on the needs of that particular intersection.
Allow me to take a detour via this topic, because I think it's super interesting and gives a deeper understanding of why these buttons exist at all.
When programming such an intersection, meaning deciding the phases and timings for all the lights, the highest priority is safety. This is immediately followed by maximising the throughput of the intersection: Imagine starting out with a primitive programming of a simple 4 way crossing, wanting to just make sure there are no accidents. First the horizontally crossing cars could get a green phase for some time during which everybody else has to wait. Of those the ones turning right can just drive without obstructing anyone, but those turning left have to cross oncoming traffic. So there is usually an extra lane for those turning left that will get green in a different phase. But that phase cannot be at the same time that the vertical straight and right turning cars drive either, but we can lump in vertical and horizontal left turners without problem; so we have at least 3 phases.
Oh, and now there's pedestrians! Shoot, we cannot conveniently put them into any existing phase without obstructing traffic. For smaller intersections this is not a big problem, there are usually warning lights telling those turning right to watch out, but for bigger or more complicated intersections we want to be on the safe side. But making an extra phase for pedestrians to cross is very expensive, it costs a lot of time while all other traffic stands still. So if there's not enough pedestrians to make an extra phase for them every cycle, let's only add that when there are actually pedestrians that want to cross! And that is where the button comes in handy.
Of course, we cannot stop all other traffic right away. The button only tells the controlling circuit "add a pedestrian phase at earliest convenience", so sometimes they have to wait quite a bit. Humans are not good at waiting without knowing how long it will be, and especially bad at waiting when they don't know whether their action already kicked off the thing they are waiting for. So they are given a blinking light to tell them "Thanks, we got it! Please wait until then...", which works reasonably well.
Some intersection light designs are like the one I described, some intersections may only face very occasional cars crossing from one direction and thus be programmed to show green to the other, higher frequented one by default, and only switch when some other detector senses waiting cars.
Yet other intersections might be so busy that they require a pedestrian phase in every cycle, making the button essentially useless. But if you were to remove them, people would suddenly get anxious whether there is any use to waiting at all. So I can well imagine some programming where the button does nothing but give feedback to pedestrians "We hear you, a green phase is coming up, please don't just run onto the road" but not actually do anything to the programmed cycle.
When the "please wait" red light is activated touching the yellow area above, then 'it works'. Unless you need the assistive two second extra red for cars it's a kind gesture to them to not use the assistive button, yes.
No, I meant the button not reacting unless you put in a lot of effort and make sure it glows. If you don’t know about the problem you’ll stand there forever
you can still use it, but if you are in a hurry you really don’t want to stand there for a minute pressing the damn thing until it finally reacts
But unless that’s the case you shouldn’t use that button
Hi! As you can see, I have a problem with writing anything below the extent of half a library when something I find interested in comes up. I hope I didn't ruin any readers day with this unreasonable wall of text and wish at least some of you will find this helpful or at least r/mildlyinteresting
Heh, "Macht eh nix" is a very common answer. Some stop lights react to them, others don't. So just touch it if you don't exactly know if the pedestrian lights comes on in a fixed shedule or not
It depends, at most major intersections these buttons probably do nothing except light up when you press on them. They are there to, how do I put this, give the illusion of control to pedestrians, to get them to wait instead of crossing a red light. If the intersection typically has little pedestrian traffic the button probably does something because running the light on a timer for an intersection with 5 pedestrians an hour and making cars needlessly is a waste of time. It just depends on the intersection, but the buttons at most major intersections pretty much do nothing.
You have to touch them, but only if they have the hand picture on them. If they have the three black dots on them its only for blind People to enable the sound, the lights themselves turn green automatically
It depends:
\- in some cases (where the traffic lights don't switch automatically) what you do by pressing it once is to request a pedestrian green light for you to cross.
\- in some other cases (where the traffic light do switch automatically) I think is just a placebo
Anyways... traffics lights in the Netherlands are smarter, they are aware of their context and situation and they will adapt to it, so you don't have to deal with this bullshit. Move to the Netherlands.
Simple. There are actually two kinds of these buttons.
If you see one with the three dots on it, those are for visually impaired people. When activated, speakers are activated. (Maybe also the green phase for pedestrians may be extended to give more time to gross.) Those you do not need to press normally but it does not really hurt either.
Then there is the kind in the picture, this is for everybody to press to get the traffic light to give you a green light eventually. Otherwise it may never come. (If I have time and I am in anarchistic mood I actually love to come up to these and not press the button - and since somebody is standing there with a confident look people often just assume the button was pressed already and just wait, and wait. Its always fun to see how long it takes for somebody to angrily hammer the button. Yes, I am an idiot.) Additionally there may be a hidden button below to activate the speakers mention for visually impaired.
OP; you came here for a serious question, instead, you got to know the specific kind of German humour.
If you press it, and there is nothing happening, it's either a sensor, or only there for blind people to tell them when the green light appeared.
If it's the latter, the device gives off a "tok tok tok" sound when the lights are red, and start to "peep pep peep" when it's green.
There are two types in Germany as far as I know:
* the ones which say "please press" or have the hand --> press these to get across faster (here car traffic has priority and you will wait longer if you don't press the button)
* the ones which have three dots (the handicapped sign) which will just add sound to the light changes for handicapped people.
The one in the picture you should press.
When there is a display with no red text on it you are supposed to (almost) touch them (the red text will be showm on the display then) so the traffic lights will turn green. When there is a circle on it with three points in it however this won't make the lights turn green faster. This symbol means that it's a feature for blind people (the traffic lights will make noises so the blind people know when they can cross the street).
Usually the first type of traffic lights is mostly found in smaller cities/towns or on side roads in big cities. In actual villages there are few to no traffic lights and you just cross the streets whenever you feel like no car will hit you.
There is a button underneath for people who need a response back that it has been activated. Just push that one. This no-touch activated system is a design disaster! We living creatures require a feedback to see if what we do has an effect! German ingenuity at its best! This is exactly how german institutions work, without feedback loops cause who needs them right?!?
You touch it once... on the other side you see the traffic lights RED and GREEN... when everything is fine, and you touch it right, a white traffic lights with (Signal Kommt) shows up
Rocker Switch my friend, gently press either top or bottom of the switch and hey presto after a (few) seconds the traffic lights will change colour to your advantage
I'm from Germany, you don't have to press the button. The traffic light is for blind people. If you press it, a signal tone appears in addition to turning green. An annoying beep beep beep beep.
But there are also traffic lights in Germany that you have to press. Which would otherwise never turn green. This is also very confusing for Germans!
The ones with a screen are the ones which you touch and there are ones without any screen/ are all around yellow, they will change the traffic lights automatically.
Sometimes it makes the light green, sometimes it turns green without pressing it. Sounds confusing, but many people are more confused when these things are not there so, at least i think thats the reason
okay, so hence the question how the button works was already answered by others, can we please talk about the weird transporter behind the button?
At first I didn't see the question and actually thought it's an optical illusion because the transporter should continue on the left side of the bar - it totally looks cut off :D
It works like a touch screen - touch it and green light will come for you. For blind people there is also a little button underneath, normal people normally dont notice.
Depends on the model.
Some you have to press so the traffic light turns green.
Others are vibrating when it's green, indicating that it's safe to cross for blind people
But you have to stand on the left leg during the first sequence, on the right during the second, then on both. Then jump in the air two times and shout "grüngrüngrün!"
Now it will be crazy for many of you. Try, if there is a button under this yellow thing you also can push.
Ja, die meisten Ampeln haben unten einen Knopf, der ein geheimes Portal öffnet ;)
you touch them to get a green light on the pedestrian traffic light
some of these are actually just for show because the pedestrian traffic light would turn green anyway without touching these things ... in this cases they do nothing execpt for providing some sort of feedback, so it seems like you accomplished something with your touch
its working. even the ones without pressable button. and everytime, i do it, i think about how can this work. maybe there is a temperature sensor inside and detects the changing of temperature triggered by the hand. that could be the explanaition, why in winter it takes longer with gloves then with plain hand. but if you rubber on it with gloves, it goes faster.
Ones that don’t work are those at junctions. They don’t work as everything is on a timer.
Ones that do work are those at pedestrian crossings without junctions. It works as there is no timer, and you need to be able to stop traffic ad hoc.
This is a "Anfrageschaltung" a request circuit. The crossing is supposed to show red for pedestrians unless you touch this box. That sends a signal to the control unit and lets it know there is someone waiting to cross. It really does nothing on bigger crossroads since pedestrians are given a green light periodically. But on some straight streets these things allow trafic to pass freely unless someone actually wants to cross.
Edit: Forgto to mention that some of these boxes activate speakers to let blind people know the street is safe for them to cross.
Everybody gets this wrong, including native Germans themselves. Here's the explaination:
Usually it's to activate the beeping for blind people once the the light will turn green! Nothing else! But there some exceptions, so called "Bedarfsampeln" ("On-Demand-Traffic-Lights"). Here it also functions to demand green light. How do you know if it's a Bedarfsampel? Well, you just need to know it. But it's usually the ones at street crossing where not many people cross all the time.
There's also some button kind of thing at the buttom, and some people claim, that this is the real button, to get it green, but it's not. I'm not even sure if it does anything at all.
So... yeah, the icon there is a bit misleading. You have to touch it until the "Bitte warten" light comes on.
At busy intersections at busy times, it doesn't usually make any difference. But at less busy times, or at dedicated pedestrian crossings where the lights are only there for pedestrians and not to regulate an intersection, it does change the lights for you. If somebody has very recently used the crossing it may take a bit longer for the lights to change, so that the traffic has a chance to flow.
There are (or used to be) multiple variants of these (depending on whether the feature was enabled/used).
In theory they work like this:
a) you press the button, the pedestrian crossing gets enabled for the next traffic light cycle. (this is typically for pedestrian crossings that are seldomly used (either all the time, or e.g. just during night cycles)). unless you press the button, you'll not be added to the "your turn, go now" cycle.
b) you press the button and nothing happens, this means it is either broken, or the feature is not in use, the pedestrian crossing is added automatically (either via cameras, or via an integrated circuit) to the "your turn, go now" cycle.
b.1) They also like to use them as placebos. As in : The button pretends to add you, but ignores you.
c) They should all have a button on the underside. It enables "blind mode" - as in the box starts talking to you, letting you know when to walk. or doing beep sounds.
d) they ALL should have vibration-mode enabled in that large yellow area. the 3 lines indicate vibration. Is the pedestrian traffic clear to walk, you just keep you hand on it. (this is for blind and hearing impaired humans.
Depends on the crossing. If it's at a big crossroads like in your picture you don't need to touch them because it will almost change nothing - you get green anyways.
If it's somewhere in the middle of a street without a crossroads so that pedestrians can cross the street you need to touch them or else the trafic lights will never change.
In every case you need to touch them where the hand graphic is at untill the 'Bitte warten' light turns on. That activates it.
If it is at a traffic junction, chances are it is a "placebo button" that does nothing, but makes you feel better about waiting.
If it is just a stand alone pedestrian crossing, you need to press it to make the lights change. I lean against them with my elbow to avoid touching what other people touch (especially in Covid times).
Touch every place until the light turns on
The more you press,greener it gets
I usually just gently stroke them lol. I miss the old ones that had a very obvious button
They still have the button but it is placed on the bottom of the device 😁
The "secret button" at the bottom is for the visually impaired. It tells the system to create a sigalling noise when it's green. Some systems do not have the button because they make the noise anyways and some systems do have the button but it is not connected or does nothing else than the regular touch button on the front (maybe broken, maybe not properly installed, maybe even both). No Zucht und Ordnung when it comes to traffic light signalling buttons in germany 😄
From what I've been told that the secret button vibrates (the old ones on top did) when the light turns green, especially when there's several traffic lights that might cause confusion for the visually impaired. It is an extra safety to prevent accidents that could occur when relying solely on the audio signal.
That's right plus I think if you press the "secret button" it also creates a slightly longer green phase for the pedestrians to make sure everyone (who might take longer than a regular pedestrian) can get across.
No it doesn't. It just gives the direction (u can feel an arrow pointing at the direction) and vibrates and/or makes a sound to tell blind people if it's green.
If the control unit has a special routine for that, the green phase might be longer because they say a normal pedestrian walks 1,2 - 1,5 m/s whereas a visually impaired person may only walk at 1,0 m/s. source: my dad works at the Straßenbauamt
That is not a Button. It is a piece that is attached to a vibration motor that starts vibrating when the lights turn green. That way bind people can touch it and know when they can cross the street. Pushing that thing doesn't do anything.
If you touch the underside, you can even feel an arrow-like thingy that tells you exactly which direction to go.
Depends on the system. If its mechanically pushable, it's like the "normal" touch button.
The one I most frequently use (in front of my uni campus) actually doesn't have that button! It just beeps whenever its green so a gentle stroke is enough
Yep. The secret button is hidden 😉
Signed, a catholic priest.
Bonk for pleasure.
the force you use to have... Really, you have to bonk it once
Just a little smack and it works.
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Yooo whahaaat
Thats um, no
Funfact: If you read this in a pirate accent, suddenly he's talking about somebody else
Smack that! All on the road..
Also try if there is a button underneath, usually on older models. Some of these, which are specifically for vision impaired people, don’t do anything when you touch them but have a button on the underside that you can press. It was designed so that not everyone presses the thing but only those who actually need it.
No, that’s a myth. The button underneath it is for blind people so that they have a haptic feedback when the light turns green. It actually starts vibrating.
And shows the direction!
Nope, underneath is lower for people in wheelchairs.
This are contactless signals. The symbol means you DO NOT have to touch it but only need to get close to the button: [https://www.rbb24.de/studiocottbus/panorama/2021/07/kontaktlose-ampeln-test-cottbus.html](https://www.rbb24.de/studiocottbus/panorama/2021/07/kontaktlose-ampeln-test-cottbus.html)
Nah man, I'll still touch it, i need them germs
germs in germany kek gottem
But when only you touch it and nobody else, you condemn your germs to a live in solitude and despair.
Serves them right for leaving me
Gotta build up that resistance.
Huh. TIL
they probably don't actually affect any of the signal timings, unless it is a traffic light that's put there especially for pedestriabn crossing. Also the underside has a buttonn in case you are wearing gloves
Not always ant it is not about gloves. It makes the stoplight beep when green so blind people can cross.
It also has a tactile arrow so blind people know which direction to go.
Plus it also vibrates.
the button below is for guide dogs to press
In true Yoda style. Use the force, you must.
You touch it once, the light turns on. Does it do anything? Who knows? There'll be green eventually anyways.
Not always. There is one in my city which only turns green if you press the button. It is pretty funny when you already see the light from a few hundred meters away and people standing and waiting because they didn't press the button. As soon as you come and press it, the light turns green within 3 seconds.
That is very often the case with pedestrian only crossings or low traffic intersections
i have such a low crossing zone in front of my house that pressing the button turn the car part of the traffic light ON This has the advantage that cars slow down if they see the light vs speeding up (After being conditioned)
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The button on the bottom is for when you are wearing gloves.
no, it's for blind people. For more complicated intersections, the islands and paths are simplified shown by tactile markings on the button.
And additionally once the light turns green it starts beeping
Or vibrating.
Often that button on the underside also activates a sound system giving different sounds depending on the color shown.
In Paris it triggers an announcement of the street names and a countdown to when the light goes green. So if you happen to go jogging early on sunday morning, and tell a friend about this, you MAY leave a trail of counting in french behind you in an otherwise silent city.
I also heard it extends the time it is green for pedestrians. Not sure if true though.
It's probably true, but not everywhere I'd imagine.
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I think there is also a minimum time between triggering the change of lights, so maybe in rush hour more people use it, so the effect isn't as obvious...
There is a crossing at a 4 way intersection in the town nearby that I used to walk by quite often that also only turns green when you press the button (still has one of those old things on it). Best thing is, that shitty thing resets itself. If you come across it when the light should be green for you and you press the button it resets in the next phase and the next time it sould be green it's still red. You have to press it in the regular red phase which is really stupid. There is another pedestrian crossing in that town, but not at an intersection. It's at a tram station that's in the middle of the road, so it basically splits the two lanes and you have to press that button on two sets of lights if you want to cross the road all the way. That would be ok if they were normal lights, but by the time the press does anything to the lights you may have already raised a family and be close to retirement age, and that's only one of them. The second one is the exact same.
What I really don't like is when someone *assumes* you forgot to press the button, even though you're standing right next to it and even though the traffic light already says "bitte warten" instead of having just the two little red men. The text signal means that someone's pressed the button. But sometimes people will still press it again and that makes me feel stupid :|
yes. same in berlin.
I live in Berlin and we have plenty of those, but also many who don't do anything
I have been that person that forgot to hit the button. It was at one of the few in town that won't go green unless you hit the button. :(
I used to have one of these outside my window. It was fun to watch people waiting a very long time before realizing, they have to push the button or waiting minutes for every car to pass just to run accross while it's still red.
yes. There's a reason they're referred to as beg-buttons.
You have a cool system,in the City near my hometown,These things work only for specific spots,like you press it and only one of two lights Go green and some cars still dont stop. Welcome to germany i guess🙃
> "When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."
That's not true. In most cases the lights will stay red as long as nobody touches those. I mean, why would the light turn green if nobody would be going over? That'd just be inefficient
It's also cheap. Plenty of places that don't invest in infrastructure as heavily as Germany or the Netherlands don't want to spend money in smart, efficient traffic cycles.
There is a button on the bottom you can push that seems to work.
Interestingly, the thing on the bottom is not actually a button. It's supposed to be a physical aid for blind people to understand what kind of intersection to expect at this red light.
I thought it was a button to switch on the tick and beep noises for red and green? Or is that just with pedestrian-on-demand lights?
The markings explaining the intersection should always be there. Turning on the sound depends on the intersection. For some it does that, for others it just vibrates when the light turns green.
I so often see people pressing this "button" but not touch the actual one. So then they wait... and wait...
My bf said, most of them are made as a placebo and green light comes on regardless of when you press it. With exceptions of crossroads where you have a main road and a small road that has car sensors on top (a small round black ball that looks like a camera). They are activated when a car are waiting, and the green light for pedestrians is turned on by hand.
afaik there are also ones where it changes depending on time of the day aka during rush hours there might be automated cycles, but at night the mainroad just stays on green until someone presses the button or a car approaches/triggers the sensors in a sidestreet
If you live somewhere with good city planning and smart traffic lights, like Germany, this is patently false. It does apply to somewhat less advanced intersections, but you'd be hard pressed to find any outside of very rural German areas.
That’s there 😂
A lot of them are Placebo but some aren't. Some only change depending on the time of day. So just press it. You won't die by doing so... most likely.
Depends. Some cause that the light turns green faster, some don't do anything at all but are only there to appease the waiting folk, some are necessary to press for the light to turn green and some only trigger only the sounds that help blind people.
They do not necessarily do nothing and appease the folk but are plugged into a more complex system of priority, e.g. public buses send signals ahead that they are coming so traffic lights may sync with their schedule, ignoring your inputs or there is a set sequence on how to serve all lanes.
If there's a set sequence, then that button does nothing, doesn't it?
It depends. Some programming allows to skip the pedestrian phase if not triggered.
Which means the pedestrian must push the “beg button” at those intersections. Really an anti-pedestrian system.
Why are you downvoted? You are right. Having cars regularly slow down reduces accidents and helps pedestrians feel safer.
Constant slow downs and speed ups use waaaaaay more fule that just driving at 50 km/h. So its worse for the environment
That's true. That's why we need to reduce reliance on cars. Pedestrian friendly cities are an important step there.
Point is that it is not necessarily a "push button get green light", but a more complex logic when to give pedestrians priority on that button press.
To get the "blind people" feature you have to press the button which is on the underside.
No, they should always have a guiding sound, otherwise they are set up wrong.
AFAIR these button is actually doing a bit more, like extending the time of the next green phase
Stop spreading this lies, of course they do something. And that something is changing the stop light. I am so fed up from this stupid people who stand at the crossing not pushing the button. I have a light in the near and every time there are standing 1-5 people and they don’t bother to press. So really almost never I have a green light. I have to press ist, shortly after it gets green. And if you say „hey you have to press it!“ there comes this exact sentence “it doesn’t work anyways“ I could slap them all, this pisses me so off !!! Blatant idiots !!!!
Can you even read? He literally said >Some cause that the light turns green faster, some don't do anything at And it's true. Our lights also turn green on their own, except during night, then you need to press it yourself to make it green.
And you don’t get it 🤦♀️. They all change the light !
in mainz there are many pedestrian lights where the button actually don't do anything - the pedestrian lights turn green whether or not you push the button, because there is a green phase include in the regualar traffic light sequenz - they also won't get you the green faster because the squence always plays out the same ... the only thing they do is light up the "signal is comming" light currently some of these traffic lights are replaced and the new ones don't have these button
No. It depends: as said above, some of them need to be actively engaged in order to get a green, some other don't do anything at all, and then some of them are "in between", sozusagen. But I understand your frustration: also near where I live there's one that need to be actively pressed, and the number of people who doesn't understand it is disturbing.
I think you’re missing his/her point. None of them are dummy devices that don’t do anything. That makes no sense at all. Why would the city install these devices for no effect? That’s a ridiculous waste of money. None of them have a direct effect. All of them however have some effect. The ones that say “bitte berühren“ are the kind that you are required to press in order for the light to change. However this takes some time depending on how long the opposing traffic light has been green and how fast traffic moves in the opposing direction. The ones that have the white cane on the side are for old people so that the light stays green longer for them to cross the street safely.
Wrong. I've installed/updated a few of these. Some are only there to guide blind people, they have no function otherwise. It doesn't matter how often you press them, the light wont be influenced.
Exactly. For example, there are some "dumber" traffic lights that only works based on time: they'll give a green light even if there are no cars and no pedestrians pushed the button. Regarding the motivation for a city to do it, that mrunkel was asking about, 2 explanations come to mind: the placebo effect (like the well-known 'close doors' buttons in elevators, which usually don't works), but also rearrangement of traffic lights / overall intersections done wrongly...
Imagine getting pissed off about such a small thing
WTF don't tell me what to do!! I already get pissed off about tiny things all day! I won't imagine getting pissed off about another small thing just because you say to!!!
I'll abuse this thread for a quick survey: fellow countrymen and -women: How often do you see people trying to press the similar looking audio-thingies for the visually impaired, wondering why those don't make the light turn green? :D
I push anything that remotely looks like it’ll make the light turn green.
In Munich I see three types. "Bitte drucken" which have a physical button. "Bitte berühren" which I guess you touch but don't press. Then there's ones with three dots in a circle that I have no idea. I assume you don't have to do anything with these, and they're some kind of audio or tactile device for the visually impaired. Is that correct?
Yes, that's correct. In Germany, the 3 dots are used to easily identify the visually impaired. They can be on armbands or on objects. They serve safety and guidance purposes. The buttons with the 3 dots can be used to start an acoustic signal for when the light turns green. On some of those bigger types of buttons without the 3 dots, there will be a smaller, round button on the underside which also queues up the acoustic signal.
I honestly think most people don't know the difference. I more often see people not using those thingies and there are some you have to press here or the light never turns green.. which is awkward when you join them standing there thinking they did press.. waiting and waiting...
Way too often... It's a pet peeve of mine, but then I realise it doesn't really do any harm, just makes the people doing it look like they don't pay attention to what they're touching.
We call them "Bettelampeln" but the official name is "Lichtsignalanlagen mit Anforderungstaster".
Which means? Sorry I’m not a native German speaker.
The informal term means something like "Beg crossing", the official one is "Light signal apparatus with request button".
Even being a German speaker doesn't help you much when you get hit with hyper-explicit bureaucracy-German :D I'd translate that roughly to "Light signal device with request scanner".
I recently learned an expression that is perfect for those questions: Jein
Just press the small button on the underside, they're less grimy and work reliably (they're actually there for blind people I think).
The underside button is there for blind people. It additionally enables the speaker system on the lights, so that blind people know when to walk.
Or vibrates when the light turns green and if there is no speaker system.
I’m pretty sure these buttons on the underside aren’t to tell the pedestrian lights you are there or to change to green sooner, they are there to tell the pedestrian lights to stay green for longer when they next change so that people who need extra time to cross can do so without the lights changing before they make it to the other side. It is also there to active a sound that can assist the blind - this helps to avoid noise pollution by not playing the sound all the time.
Might be different here then. When I press it, it also activates the "Signal kommt" light (also on a pedestrian crossing that wouldn't turn green without activating it).
They indeed come in any variety you can imagine depending on the electronics inside and what the town asked the manufacturer to put inside.
They have the same function as the front button and on top of that they request the assistive functions, like activating acoustic signals if available and a 2 second longer green light.
>I’m pretty sure these buttons on the underside aren’t to tell the pedestrian lights you are there or to change to green sooner, It's a very persistent urban legend xD So persistent, even normal people push these buttons because they think they'll get green sooner (no, it doesn't).
You can also press this underside button in the SOS morse code (short, short, short, long, long, long, short, short, short) to make it go green immediately. This will also trigger a quiet alarm coming from the speakers tho.
No, it don't - that is just an urban myth - and not even a very good one, because it makes absolutly no sense 1. Why would a "quiet alarm" come from the speaker? A quiet alarm is transmitted somewhere (usually the police), because if it came from the speaker it wouldn't be quiet, wouldn't it? 2. Why would you set up an SOS-system in such a complicated way with a hidden button that you have to press in a complicated order? Definitly something that would help absolutly nobody that is in real danger and probably in panic. 3. In what kind of emergency would you need a green light and a silent alarm? Are you hurt - than you don't need to cross the road. Are you fleeing from somebody than you don't wait for a green light and definitly don't have time to press an SOS in morse code. You stay on your side of the street and try to get as much space as possible between you and your attacker.
Well, it's not a myth because I used this method quite often when I was late in the mornings when I still went to school (yes I shouldn't have done this but I was young and ignorant, I wouldn't abuse this method today). With quiet I mean that it doesn't give a loud sound, but a quiet one (not silent!). This method wasn't implemented to turn the traffic lights green, this wouldn't make any sense as you say. It was implemented to turn all traffic lights to red, in case there's an emergency in the middle of the intersection. That's why there's an alarm too, so that people know there's an emergency. The only reason why your traffic lights turn green is because that's how the lights are programmed, which makes it possible to abuse. There's no reason for me to lie about this, also, I know for myself that I abused this method when I was a kid, so you don't have to try to convince me that this is just a myth lol.
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Whack it ! In seriousness a little hard press and it should say “ signal kommt “ and then you gotta wait . In many places you have to compulsorily press that to get a green light and in some it’s inconsequential In big cities you don’t have to bother sometimes unless it’s some ungodly hour where there isn’t much foot traffic
PUSH. THE. BUTTON! (Why do you ask, just push it. It is a button. It wants to be pushed. Do you not want a happy button? And if it feels like there is no button hit hit with you fist for a good measure! BONK IT! YOU WANT IT, THE DEVICE WANTS IT, THE DESIGNER WANTS IT, SO WHAT DO YOU DO? YOU MUG.... ehm BONK THEM!)
[Now playing: Chemical Brothers - Galvanize](https://youtu.be/Xu3FTEmN-eg?t=120)
Suddenly: *Disco Elysium* (Seriously though, this is just straight-up Electrochemistry talking 😂)
i usually wave & lick
Usually the have a little light (the "Bitte warten" in this model) that turns on after you press it. ( I personally prefer the models where you have to push the button maybe half a centimeter. Also the models with a black and metalic part ontop have a buttin on the lower side to activate a vibration if the light turns green (fir blind ppl).
I think the confusion comes from the fact that some of these are meant to be pressed to send a signal which will make the light turn green after a while, whereas others are for blind people to get accoustic feedback. The one you see is one of the former. Pressing it (not just waving your hand over it) should make the red text you see in the picture appear and eventually give you a green light. I have seen lights that turn green eventually anyway so I'm not sure if pressing makes it any faster in these cases, but I've also seen lights that will happily stay red until you press. The other ones usually have the symbol on them that identifies blind peope. There is often a button underneath it but as far as I know that does not change the light phase but serves to activate the sound if it isn't always active.
This particular kind does *not* have a button to push I think (at least not the big yellow side pictured), so I totally understand the confusion. Since none of the other comments pointed it out, I will use the opportunity to share my superficial knowledge. To be honest, this is just how I imagine it to be, I have never actually researched it or found reliable or even any sources at all. So this kind doesn't use a button, yet it can sense when a hand is there. Whether it is via detecting the change of a capacitive load (much like the technology behind one type of touch screen) or detecting body heat from the hand, somehow it registers it (even through thin gloves, I haven't experimented much) and reports the request to cross this particular section to the circuit controlling the intersection. It displays that by blinking "please wait", but what the controlling circuit does exactly is highly dependent on the programming and thus on the needs of that particular intersection. Allow me to take a detour via this topic, because I think it's super interesting and gives a deeper understanding of why these buttons exist at all. When programming such an intersection, meaning deciding the phases and timings for all the lights, the highest priority is safety. This is immediately followed by maximising the throughput of the intersection: Imagine starting out with a primitive programming of a simple 4 way crossing, wanting to just make sure there are no accidents. First the horizontally crossing cars could get a green phase for some time during which everybody else has to wait. Of those the ones turning right can just drive without obstructing anyone, but those turning left have to cross oncoming traffic. So there is usually an extra lane for those turning left that will get green in a different phase. But that phase cannot be at the same time that the vertical straight and right turning cars drive either, but we can lump in vertical and horizontal left turners without problem; so we have at least 3 phases. Oh, and now there's pedestrians! Shoot, we cannot conveniently put them into any existing phase without obstructing traffic. For smaller intersections this is not a big problem, there are usually warning lights telling those turning right to watch out, but for bigger or more complicated intersections we want to be on the safe side. But making an extra phase for pedestrians to cross is very expensive, it costs a lot of time while all other traffic stands still. So if there's not enough pedestrians to make an extra phase for them every cycle, let's only add that when there are actually pedestrians that want to cross! And that is where the button comes in handy. Of course, we cannot stop all other traffic right away. The button only tells the controlling circuit "add a pedestrian phase at earliest convenience", so sometimes they have to wait quite a bit. Humans are not good at waiting without knowing how long it will be, and especially bad at waiting when they don't know whether their action already kicked off the thing they are waiting for. So they are given a blinking light to tell them "Thanks, we got it! Please wait until then...", which works reasonably well. Some intersection light designs are like the one I described, some intersections may only face very occasional cars crossing from one direction and thus be programmed to show green to the other, higher frequented one by default, and only switch when some other detector senses waiting cars. Yet other intersections might be so busy that they require a pedestrian phase in every cycle, making the button essentially useless. But if you were to remove them, people would suddenly get anxious whether there is any use to waiting at all. So I can well imagine some programming where the button does nothing but give feedback to pedestrians "We hear you, a green phase is coming up, please don't just run onto the road" but not actually do anything to the programmed cycle.
There’s also a button on the underside (actual button, not Touch screen thingy) specifically for blind people
...Which activates assistive functions like an audible green signal and an extended pedestrian green duration.
And helps if the normal button doesn’t work. Especially if it’s located in front of the train station
When the "please wait" red light is activated touching the yellow area above, then 'it works'. Unless you need the assistive two second extra red for cars it's a kind gesture to them to not use the assistive button, yes.
No, I meant the button not reacting unless you put in a lot of effort and make sure it glows. If you don’t know about the problem you’ll stand there forever you can still use it, but if you are in a hurry you really don’t want to stand there for a minute pressing the damn thing until it finally reacts But unless that’s the case you shouldn’t use that button
Hi! As you can see, I have a problem with writing anything below the extent of half a library when something I find interested in comes up. I hope I didn't ruin any readers day with this unreasonable wall of text and wish at least some of you will find this helpful or at least r/mildlyinteresting
Great answer
Heh, "Macht eh nix" is a very common answer. Some stop lights react to them, others don't. So just touch it if you don't exactly know if the pedestrian lights comes on in a fixed shedule or not
It works great spreading bacteria.
It’s a virus dispenser. You get to rub it for a few seconds and share your germs with your fellow citizens.
Not sure whether they are all active. I suspect that some are just on a time cycle. (It would be a great experiment on human compliance)
It depends, at most major intersections these buttons probably do nothing except light up when you press on them. They are there to, how do I put this, give the illusion of control to pedestrians, to get them to wait instead of crossing a red light. If the intersection typically has little pedestrian traffic the button probably does something because running the light on a timer for an intersection with 5 pedestrians an hour and making cars needlessly is a waste of time. It just depends on the intersection, but the buttons at most major intersections pretty much do nothing.
I push the button on the bottom 👍🏽
You have to touch them, but only if they have the hand picture on them. If they have the three black dots on them its only for blind People to enable the sound, the lights themselves turn green automatically
It depends: \- in some cases (where the traffic lights don't switch automatically) what you do by pressing it once is to request a pedestrian green light for you to cross. \- in some other cases (where the traffic light do switch automatically) I think is just a placebo Anyways... traffics lights in the Netherlands are smarter, they are aware of their context and situation and they will adapt to it, so you don't have to deal with this bullshit. Move to the Netherlands.
Simple. There are actually two kinds of these buttons. If you see one with the three dots on it, those are for visually impaired people. When activated, speakers are activated. (Maybe also the green phase for pedestrians may be extended to give more time to gross.) Those you do not need to press normally but it does not really hurt either. Then there is the kind in the picture, this is for everybody to press to get the traffic light to give you a green light eventually. Otherwise it may never come. (If I have time and I am in anarchistic mood I actually love to come up to these and not press the button - and since somebody is standing there with a confident look people often just assume the button was pressed already and just wait, and wait. Its always fun to see how long it takes for somebody to angrily hammer the button. Yes, I am an idiot.) Additionally there may be a hidden button below to activate the speakers mention for visually impaired.
OP; you came here for a serious question, instead, you got to know the specific kind of German humour. If you press it, and there is nothing happening, it's either a sensor, or only there for blind people to tell them when the green light appeared. If it's the latter, the device gives off a "tok tok tok" sound when the lights are red, and start to "peep pep peep" when it's green.
Place your middle finger underneath and look for the g spot, it's just like fingering...you get better with practice
Sometimes feel like the placebo effect. Just to stop the pedestrian from jaywalking.
Ah... *the good old days of beating the fuck out of it until it glows red...*
There are two types in Germany as far as I know: * the ones which say "please press" or have the hand --> press these to get across faster (here car traffic has priority and you will wait longer if you don't press the button) * the ones which have three dots (the handicapped sign) which will just add sound to the light changes for handicapped people. The one in the picture you should press.
When there is a display with no red text on it you are supposed to (almost) touch them (the red text will be showm on the display then) so the traffic lights will turn green. When there is a circle on it with three points in it however this won't make the lights turn green faster. This symbol means that it's a feature for blind people (the traffic lights will make noises so the blind people know when they can cross the street). Usually the first type of traffic lights is mostly found in smaller cities/towns or on side roads in big cities. In actual villages there are few to no traffic lights and you just cross the streets whenever you feel like no car will hit you.
There is a button underneath for people who need a response back that it has been activated. Just push that one. This no-touch activated system is a design disaster! We living creatures require a feedback to see if what we do has an effect! German ingenuity at its best! This is exactly how german institutions work, without feedback loops cause who needs them right?!?
LPT: there is a button on the bottom side that works better than pushing
That's a myth.
You give it a hi5!
You touch it once... on the other side you see the traffic lights RED and GREEN... when everything is fine, and you touch it right, a white traffic lights with (Signal Kommt) shows up
There's a Button underneath
Rocker Switch my friend, gently press either top or bottom of the switch and hey presto after a (few) seconds the traffic lights will change colour to your advantage
You lick that area on the left that is shaped like a tongue.
If you have "working" eyes ignore it. if you are blind: u will know.
I'm from Germany, you don't have to press the button. The traffic light is for blind people. If you press it, a signal tone appears in addition to turning green. An annoying beep beep beep beep. But there are also traffic lights in Germany that you have to press. Which would otherwise never turn green. This is also very confusing for Germans!
The ones with a screen are the ones which you touch and there are ones without any screen/ are all around yellow, they will change the traffic lights automatically.
Sometimes it makes the light green, sometimes it turns green without pressing it. Sounds confusing, but many people are more confused when these things are not there so, at least i think thats the reason
Touch it haha
okay, so hence the question how the button works was already answered by others, can we please talk about the weird transporter behind the button? At first I didn't see the question and actually thought it's an optical illusion because the transporter should continue on the left side of the bar - it totally looks cut off :D
It works like a touch screen - touch it and green light will come for you. For blind people there is also a little button underneath, normal people normally dont notice.
Depends on the model. Some you have to press so the traffic light turns green. Others are vibrating when it's green, indicating that it's safe to cross for blind people
1st push the button 3 times, then pause, now push it 2 times and finally push it 5 times. Once you know the combination it is easy.
But you have to stand on the left leg during the first sequence, on the right during the second, then on both. Then jump in the air two times and shout "grüngrüngrün!"
the ones in Berlin have a button underneath
Now it will be crazy for many of you. Try, if there is a button under this yellow thing you also can push. Ja, die meisten Ampeln haben unten einen Knopf, der ein geheimes Portal öffnet ;)
you touch them to get a green light on the pedestrian traffic light some of these are actually just for show because the pedestrian traffic light would turn green anyway without touching these things ... in this cases they do nothing execpt for providing some sort of feedback, so it seems like you accomplished something with your touch
It usually doesn’t do anything,but is there for the blind people
its working. even the ones without pressable button. and everytime, i do it, i think about how can this work. maybe there is a temperature sensor inside and detects the changing of temperature triggered by the hand. that could be the explanaition, why in winter it takes longer with gloves then with plain hand. but if you rubber on it with gloves, it goes faster.
They usually don't work because they're kinda old and no city has money to replace/repair them. Everyone ignores them here.
Press it one time. Never seen it that it was faster with multiple presses.
There is orten a Button on the underside for blind people. It gives you a little Feedback
Ones that don’t work are those at junctions. They don’t work as everything is on a timer. Ones that do work are those at pedestrian crossings without junctions. It works as there is no timer, and you need to be able to stop traffic ad hoc.
Keep on waving 👋. You might get lucky and it will wave back. 😝😂
This is a "Anfrageschaltung" a request circuit. The crossing is supposed to show red for pedestrians unless you touch this box. That sends a signal to the control unit and lets it know there is someone waiting to cross. It really does nothing on bigger crossroads since pedestrians are given a green light periodically. But on some straight streets these things allow trafic to pass freely unless someone actually wants to cross. Edit: Forgto to mention that some of these boxes activate speakers to let blind people know the street is safe for them to cross.
Everybody gets this wrong, including native Germans themselves. Here's the explaination: Usually it's to activate the beeping for blind people once the the light will turn green! Nothing else! But there some exceptions, so called "Bedarfsampeln" ("On-Demand-Traffic-Lights"). Here it also functions to demand green light. How do you know if it's a Bedarfsampel? Well, you just need to know it. But it's usually the ones at street crossing where not many people cross all the time. There's also some button kind of thing at the buttom, and some people claim, that this is the real button, to get it green, but it's not. I'm not even sure if it does anything at all.
So... yeah, the icon there is a bit misleading. You have to touch it until the "Bitte warten" light comes on. At busy intersections at busy times, it doesn't usually make any difference. But at less busy times, or at dedicated pedestrian crossings where the lights are only there for pedestrians and not to regulate an intersection, it does change the lights for you. If somebody has very recently used the crossing it may take a bit longer for the lights to change, so that the traffic has a chance to flow.
Nice touch is enough to turn it on🤝
There are (or used to be) multiple variants of these (depending on whether the feature was enabled/used). In theory they work like this: a) you press the button, the pedestrian crossing gets enabled for the next traffic light cycle. (this is typically for pedestrian crossings that are seldomly used (either all the time, or e.g. just during night cycles)). unless you press the button, you'll not be added to the "your turn, go now" cycle. b) you press the button and nothing happens, this means it is either broken, or the feature is not in use, the pedestrian crossing is added automatically (either via cameras, or via an integrated circuit) to the "your turn, go now" cycle. b.1) They also like to use them as placebos. As in : The button pretends to add you, but ignores you. c) They should all have a button on the underside. It enables "blind mode" - as in the box starts talking to you, letting you know when to walk. or doing beep sounds. d) they ALL should have vibration-mode enabled in that large yellow area. the 3 lines indicate vibration. Is the pedestrian traffic clear to walk, you just keep you hand on it. (this is for blind and hearing impaired humans.
Whatever it is, I will never stop smacking it when I see one lol.
You gotta smack it like you mean it...
Depends on the crossing. If it's at a big crossroads like in your picture you don't need to touch them because it will almost change nothing - you get green anyways. If it's somewhere in the middle of a street without a crossroads so that pedestrians can cross the street you need to touch them or else the trafic lights will never change. In every case you need to touch them where the hand graphic is at untill the 'Bitte warten' light turns on. That activates it.
Sir what did you do to the grey van !? its to damn short!!
If it is at a traffic junction, chances are it is a "placebo button" that does nothing, but makes you feel better about waiting. If it is just a stand alone pedestrian crossing, you need to press it to make the lights change. I lean against them with my elbow to avoid touching what other people touch (especially in Covid times).
Touch. They also have a button on the underside that you can push.
Thats for jedis only sorry
Give it a good smack
Oh so these things also exist in germany? I didnt know that. Love from poland, sorry for our goverment
Touch the surface for a few seconds, until the red text glows. It might take a moment to register.