What’s with local pedestrians pushing the crosswalk buttons numerous times? Will this make the light change faster? Some people depress the button and hold it for several seconds. Others pound it aggressively. In any case, do crosswalk buttons take note of the number or duration of pushes? Sign us, Dick Button and Christopher Walken
Many of the Durango’s crosswalks are button-less and operate on autopilot. When the traffic light changes, the appropriate crosswalk signal comes on.
Not that anyone pays attention.
In Durango, when the countdown numbers turn red, it means “hustle” not “wait.”
And few people bother with crosswalk signals on the side streets. If no one is coming, it’s perfectly acceptable to cross against the light.
Just for the record, you can count Action Line as one of the many side-street scofflaws.
As for the manual crosswalk buttons – multiple frantic poundings or forceful long pushes have zero influence.
That’s according to our good friend and Action Line frequent flyer Amber Blake, the city’s multi-modal administrator.
“Typically, the signal won’t come on unless a button is pushed,” she said. “And when the button is pushed, the OK-to-walk signal comes on at the next available cycle.”
She assured pushing a crosswalk button in no way makes a traffic signal change faster:
“Some people might think it does because they went to a crosswalk, pushed a button and the light changed. This is just luck, being at the crosswalk a couple seconds before the light cycle was about to change anyway,” she said.
One button-push is sufficient, Amber stated. Any additional pushes are just a futile attempt at traffic-light bullying.
But hey, at least our crosswalk buttons actually work.
Almost 10 years ago to the day, The New York Times reported more than 2,500 of the city’s 3,250 “walk” buttons had been deactivated for many years.
It was a matter of technology and cost.
Computers running complicated algorithms had long since controlled signal timing. That, and the city didn’t want to fork out $1 million – the cost to remove the crosswalk buttons.
The newspaper noted “an unwitting public continued to push on” and called the buttons “mechanical placebos.”
Creative residents have made light of the situation, installing faux signs over the faux buttons. Among them: “Reboot Universe,” “Push Button for Luck” and “Total Crisis Panic Button – Flashing Red Hand = Don’t Think. Stay Fearful and Alert.”
At the northeast corner of 12th Street and Main, the city painted a formerly red curb gray and created three free parking spaces. I didn’t think there was any free parking downtown. – Mitch
You stumbled upon a somewhat secret serendipitous spot: unmetered parking downtown.
Again, we consult with Amber, who not only knows about crosswalks lights but is a big fan of orange, and we don’t mean the Denver Broncos.
You see, she oversees parking and the distribution of orange envelopes on windshields.
Reportedly, the city hands out orange citation envelopes as an inspiration to bypassers: “Orange you glad you put an extra quarter in the meter?”
Be that as it may, the city had lost a couple of parking spaces over the past years because of some reconfigurations, and it went on the hunt for replacements.
After a look around, crews found some red zones were “way longer than they needed to be,” Amber said.
So, gray paint was applied over the red, parking stripes were established and then winter came around.
The ground froze, making it impossible to set the meters.
People have been enjoying this parking perk – until Thursday, when it was sufficiently warm enough to pour concrete, and three-for-free became his-to-ry.
So, let that color your Monday. If you don’t want to be red-faced about an orange envelope, be sure to insert silver disks into the green meters by the gray curb.
Email questions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. You can request anonymity if knew that there’s actually a word that rhymes with ‘orange’ – sporange, a very rare alternative form of ‘sporangium,’ a botanical term for a part of a fern or similar plant.
