How do you use Berlin crosswalk signal boxes?
I see these all around town and nobody seems to know how to use them - even my German colleagues. We're engineers, so we feel pretty stupid and inadequate around them...
The majority of people I've seen either ignore them or look at them confusedly and try to slap the three black dots - like a cat to a printer - to no avail.
Obviously there are a lot of different kinds, ranging from old and busted to some having mini LCD screens - but only a few are actually press-able buttons.
What's the deal with them? How do you use them?
Best Answer
A lot of confusion (among Germans!) probably stems from the very similar and also yellow boxes that Germans have known for decades to be on some traffic lights which call for a green light for pedestrians (see image below).
Once my child self had internalised that these should be pressed when you wanted to cross a road (if there was one of those boxes, the traffic lights would usually not grant pedestrians green unless pressed), I started doing it automatically whenever a yellow box of any type was fixed to a traffic light.
However, the type in your picture is actually not pressable; it does not request a green light. It is merely there as an assistance to visually impaired. Well, my instincts trying to press something on that yellow box are stronger than my conciousness telling me that there is nothing to be pressed, so I press …
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How do you use a crosswalk signal?
Called Ped-SCOOT, it uses a stereoscopic camera, mounted on the crossing, to count pedestrians. It is activated when a pedestrian bushes the button, and if it detects high numbers of people waiting, it adjusts the traffic light switching time to give you a few extra seconds to cross.How do crosswalk lights work?
Many street crossings have pedestrian signals that show the words WALK and DON'T WALK or show a WALKING PERSON in white and a RAISED HAND in orange. Pedestrian signals direct pedestrians while crossing the street. The WALK or WALKING PERSON appears when it is legal to start crossing.What do the crosswalk signals mean?
Pushing the pedestrian button is beneficial when no vehicles are coming, as it registers to the traffic light that a pedestrian wants to cross, so it will change or hold a green light for the needed amount of time to walk across.Advanced Crossroads; Turning Right at Traffic Lights | Driving Tutorial
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Images: ksh2000, Henrikas Mackevicius, Erik Mclean, Plato Terentev