The most popular hack, which works on most models, is the "Instant Walk." Three short clicks, followed by two long, one short, two long, and three short; turn any crosswalk signal from "don't walk" to "walk" with a matching change in the traffic signals.

I gotta try this...

I'm going to walk down the street and try this out too.

Fnord: *cough*

Fnord just pwn3d a greenlight. Your legend persists.

That, or the admins delibrately greenlit it for amusement, and will delete these comment soon.

Drew works in mysterious ways...

Harrumph. Fnord has ruined my sole source of entertainment for the next 20 minutes. I'll just take my short attention span somewh

Heamer: I'll just take my short attention span somewh

Stop touching yourself.

BBspot strikes again.

The web site the article links to, www.crosswalkbuttonhacks.com, goes to a search directory. Also, the "4 short clicks-1 long clicks-2 short clicks-..." nature of the hacks makes me call bullsh.t on this whole idea.

AntiNorm:

Also, the "4 short clicks-1 long clicks-2 short clicks-..." nature of the hacks makes me call bullsh.t on this whole idea.

... one way to find out.

If you press or even stab at the button continuously for two or three minutes, the light almost always changes during that time. Try it!

I'll try these when I go jogging tonight.

I visited Salt Lake City about a month ago, and it doesn't seem like people there would have to worry about this.

I noticed that ALL cars were extremely polite in stopping and letting people walk across the crosswalks, in the middle of streets (not just the crosswalks at the intersections). Plus, they had buckets of orange flags that you were supposed to carry with you (I guess) crossing the street, probably more for at night.

Was quite bizarre.

OK, I get to be the first one that points out that this points to an article on BBSPOT, most likely parodying hacking in general public situations.

But, I guess it probably fooled a few people.

Won't work in NYC. Is's a known fact that the majority of buttons are not actually hooked up to the crosswalk light. Besides, noone pays attention to them anyway. No cars, you walk, that's the rule.

The FBI has shut down the button hack site citing violations of the DMCA and fears that terrorists might use the hacks to "cross the streets of America at will."

Bahahahahahaha!

Seriously, just line the road near the crosswalks with landmines. Gets rid of all the cars.

1: Suggested button-pushing sequence takes about as long as a red light.

2: BBspot

3: Profit!

dletter:

OK, I get to be the first one that points out that this points to an article on BBSPOT,

You're late.

2005-06-28 10:52:42 PM Fnord [TotalFark]

torch:

1: Suggested button-pushing sequence takes about as long as a red light.

2: BBspot

3: Profit!

Hahaha, pwn3d!

The buttons at our crosswalks don't actually do anything. They just make you feel better about waiting.

Hacking Coke machines is cooler...

dletter, TF

I noticed that ALL cars were extremely polite in stopping and letting people walk across the crosswalks, in the middle of streets (not just the crosswalks at the intersections). Plus, they had buckets of orange flags that you were supposed to carry with you (I guess) crossing the street, probably more for at night.

You must have been seeing the wrong sides of the flags. On the other sides they're marked with point values. But you can only run down so many pedestrians in one day, so the cars were waiting for the higher-value peds (read: drunk) to show up.

mrbah
The FBI has shut down the button hack site citing violations of the DMCA and fears that terrorists might use the hacks to "cross the streets of America at will."

Thats alright, the funniest thing I heard all day is that the FBI and Department of holmeland security actually had an investigation into the Roy Horn tiger attack. The kicker is that in their conclusion they actually stated that "it is very unlikely terrorists used a spray to provoke the tiger" to attack.

"Three short clicks, followed by two long, one short, two long, and three short"

... thats called hitting it like crazy until the light turns on its own... i shall remain skepticoontil i see it with my own eyes...

GardenVariety:

The buttons at our crosswalks don't actually do anything. They just make you feel better about waiting.

Around here, you can identify the false walk-buttons by the steel brickstraps used to hold them to the pole. I get a real kick out of it when some selfish impatient kid walks up and starts stabbing at them as though they were on an xbox controller.

GardenVariety,

The buttons at our crosswalks don't actually do anything. They just make you feel better about waiting.

That's what I thought, honestly, because i read an article (from a reputable source) not too long ago saying how those light posts get upgraded every decade or so (in big cities, the modern-looking ones have looked the way they look for the past 30+ years, which means it would be hard to believe they haven't been upgraded) and they never bothered to remove the crosswalk buttons, they just left them there, but they're not actually wired to anything inside any more.

(upgraded the light fixtures/systems at the tops of the poles, not the entire poles completely. also, circuitry design has advanced exponentially, meaning they just left the old outdated stuff there so they didn't have to replace all the poles as well.)

More fun is the stunt we pulled as kids.

Two kids stand opposite each other on both sides of a street.

Wait for a car to approach, then mime pulling on a rope across the street, really tugging on it to total tautness.

Watch the driver turn his car inside out, trying to stop in time.

Run like hell once he stops and discovers there is no rope.

last post then i have to check the rest of the threads...

shadow9,

"Three short clicks, followed by two long, one short, two long, and three short"

... thats called hitting it like crazy until the light turns on its own... i shall remain skepticoontil i see it with my own

up, up, down down, left, right, left, right, B, A, B, A, select, start

KONAMI CODE ACTIVATED

Aulus Sorry, but if i was drivin down teh road and a couple of kids pulled a rope across the street, thats their fault so screw em.two kids with a rope wouldnt stop a car, the kids would get whipped into the middle of the street and hopefully dragged for a while behind the car.

Actually, if you read the article and the timing
cycles, i gather the sequence can be done if a light
had turned red maybe a second or two prior. I'm game
to try it, even if just to kill some braincells
the next time i'm at a crosswalk.

my two cents.

-&rew

"I visited Salt Lake City about a month ago, and it doesn't seem like people there would have to worry about this.

I noticed that ALL cars were extremely polite in stopping and letting people walk across the crosswalks, in the middle of streets (not just the crosswalks at the intersections). Plus, they had buckets of orange flags that you were supposed to carry with you (I guess) crossing the street, probably more for at night.

Was quite bizarre."

That's exactly what those flags are for. In downtown SLC people were getting hit by cars so they started putting those out for them to use.

I just tried this at Broadway & Highland and at Broadway & Campbell here in Tucson.

OMFG! It works! I actually disrupted traffic.

Funny how everyone thinks that there are advanced computer systems in every light post in the country just for decyphering button-clicks so 'politicians can cross faster.' You think politicians are going to sit down and take the time to memorize these codes just so they can cross a street faster?

You think a light post is really going to listen to/measure your button presses and time them, especially extensive button clicks like 'Three short clicks, followed by two long, one short, two long, and three short'? Honestly, with their '1.2 to 1.5 second 'long' clicks,' stringing all them along most surely would use up the 10-30 seconds and the light would be changing anyway!

Is it really that much of a pain in the ass to wait 10-30 seconds? They're going to change anyway, the old button-pressing systems are outdated and when the fixtures/light systems on the tops of the poles were upgraded, the buttons were disconnected.

/sometimes a cigar is just a cigar

3-2-1-2-3?

Sounds about like the kind of 'test code' clever engis toss in - not your day to day stuff, but memorable patterns nonetheless.

Aulus:

Wait for a car to approach, then mime pulling on a rope across the street, really tugging on it to total tautness.


Yeah. I remember that happening to me once when I was a teen. The catch is make sure that you run faster than your buddy as the kid learned when I beat the shiat out of him.

The only proof i would accept that this is actually true is if you did it on two buttons that would 'interrupt' eachother...i.e., force a green going e/w then immidiately (as quickly as you could) force a green n/s. Other than that, you know, I don't really give a shiat one way or the other.

Too much work for too little result. And right now the poster(s) of the original article are laughing at all of you who think this actually works. I honestly haven't seen any of those buttons since I was a kid, and i'm 28 now, and I already posted about the newspaper article TELLING its readers that those buttons aren't hooked up to anything any more. You know, like those old railroad tracks you see every once in a while that are completely overcome by weeds...do you think any rail cars ever travel over them any more?

moltov

And sometimes it's just a big fat brown cock to suck on!

/thank you, George Carlin.

I just tried this at Broadway & Highland and at Broadway & Campbell here in Tucson.

OMFG! It works! I actually disrupted traffic.

OHH! I am in Tucson too! We should run about causing havoc!

Emnitkcits

Well, I'm a gay boy. If you can hang with that, LET'S GO OUT, dude, or guuuuurll! I like your attitude! Viva El Old Pueblo!

not to break protocol...

moc­a­s­txo­cnet

Ahh yeah, I have Fam in Tucson, can't wait to visit... I'll try a few lights on Speedway...

Like Kolb and Pantano...

2005-06-29 05:03:00 AM Aulus

Two kids stand opposite each other on both sides of a street.
Wait for a car to approach, then mime pulling on a rope across the street, really tugging on it to total tautness.
Watch the driver turn his car inside out, trying to stop in time.
Run like hell once he stops and discovers there is no rope.


No dude! Nobody driving down the road will care enough to stop if you pull a rope across the road. A rope wouldn't cause any damage to his car if he hits it. You gotta mime pulling a chain across the road! That'll stop him in his tracks!!!

/having trouble installing farkit so hopes his html tags work

dletter - I was in SLC about a month ago as well, and was amazed at how polite the drivers were when you were crossing the street with a flag. At first, we had no idea what the flags were for, but then one of the locals clued us in.

You walk across the main drag with cars bearing down on you, but if you're carrying a flag they all stop and wait patiently for you to get across the street and then they keep on driving. Bizarre. Try that in New York sometime.

"That's exactly what those flags are for. In downtown SLC people were getting hit by cars so they started putting those out for them to use."

They also put in count-down timers. It tells the pedestrians exacly how many seconds they have to cross and when it gets to 0, the light goes yellow. This has also been quite a boon for drivers as you can tell exacly how long you have to get through the light/wait for the light.

Only good thing Rocky did (grumbles about legacy highway)

I used to work at Xmission (Utah's largest and oldest ISP, the owner is running against Hatch for senate and I'm voting for him) and we had to cross 4th south near the courthouse every day to get from the parking lot to work and vice-versa. One of the guys there (Jason Kohles of Redhat and Interchange fame) always carried an stout and beefy umbrella which he had used quite a few times to hit cars that wouldn't stop for the crosswalk. I thing they should have steel baseball bats instead of the flags =)

'Round here, it just takes a complaint from a few minivan-driving soccer moms who are chicken to make a left-hand-turn to have the city put in yet ANOTHER godddam unsync'ed stop light.

Even dumb little cross streets that have hardly any traffic have a goddam light.

Stop lights are one of the biggest fuel-wasters around.

Hey, I'm Walking Here!

Psst, I hear you can use the crosswalk button signal to send Morse code messages. You can make the light flash the code out on the other side of town.

The Dept. of Homeland Security shut down the website that said how to do it though. Don't want terrorists communicating across town for free.

Some places still have the button-press systems. Of course, I have only found a few that work, and one was yesterday. All the other ones including the ones that are supposed to "detect" pedestrians waiting to cross don't work. If they change at all, they'll change when you're 1/2 the way across the street.