New York's Useless Crosswalk Buttons Here to Stay
WABC
By Michelle Charlesworth

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When pressed, they are supposed to change the light signal allowing pedestrians a faster walk. The problem -- and it may not come as a surprise to you -- is that many of them do not work. Any benefit is left to your imagination.

Here's Michelle Charlesworth.

New Yorkers love to push buttons. Just not crosswalk buttons.

Problem is that most of them -- installed in the 60's -- don't work and haven't worked since the 1980s. Not one person touched them while we were watching. But there is some concern that kids could cross when they shouldn't.

Neel Scott, Transportation Alternatives: "The streets operate on a computerized grid system, especially in manhattan. So it's not doing a thing right now."

The DOT says there are 3,200 of these left -- of which 2500 do not work.

But New York is a foot friendly city, one of the world's best. It's even listed on a podiatrist-association website for that. Ironically, the biggest thing on the "Best Of" page is a shot of a big button from another city. The New York Department of Transportation says most major avenues here -- like Fifth, and boulevards like Queens -- are synced up for cars and people.

Which means no buttons are needed -- so not one works. They also sent us a statement.

"... there are roughly 750 locations in the city where the buttons actually do work -- most notably, in the outer boroughs without main street locations -- such as Hicks and Summit Streets in Brooklyn. We are sorry if there is any inconvenience and confusion to the public."
-- Tom Cocola, DOT Spokesperson

The DOT says it can remove these things, but that means taking out the entire pole. Add up all these poles across the city, and the total cost would come to about $2 million.

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