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There are some places in the Netherlands that have great pedestrian/bike traffic buttons. - They have distinct ticking sounds for: locating them (slow tick), w

There are some places in the Netherlands that have great pedestrian/bike traffic buttons. - They have distinct ticking sounds for: locating them (slow tick), when the button has been succesfully pressed (slightly faster tick), when you can walk (very fast tick) , when the traffic light will turn red soon (intermittent fast tick) so you know to hurry up and then back to the normal slow tick. - They have a ring of leds around the button that lights up when you've pressed it and then counts down by turning of the leds one by one to when the light is gonna turn green. - The ticking can be felt through the entire pole - Often there are two traffic lights on it. One big one above and a smaller one at eye-level. Here's a button that shows the wait-indicator ring: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/95/Traffic_light_switch_0823.JPG/220px-Traffic_light_switch_0823.JPG https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/95/Tr... They're not available everywhere unfortunately.

pjc50 10y ago
When we were in Sweden, they had similar ticking buttons that had temporarily been reprogrammed for Eurovision. So the ticking was now the metronome for a gentle monophonic synth version of either "Euphoria" or "Heroes" (Swedish Eurovision entries)
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amelius 10y ago
Nice, but imho that indicator ring could have been a little bigger. I can imagine that if there are a handful of bicyclists waiting, they all can't see the button, especially if one of them is leaning on the pole.
jonshariat 10y ago
I wrote a post a while back about how count down timers on pedestrian walkways can have unintended consequences. http://www.tragicdesign.com/blog/bad-design/tell-me-when-to-go-bad-ux.html http://www.tragicdesign.com/blog/bad-design/tell-me-when-to-... Cars can spot them as they drive and try to run yellows more often.
- jhayward 10y ago
  > Cars can spot them as they drive and try to run yellows more often They can also be used to avoid panic stops. I watch them and begin braking if the light will turn yellow before I enter the intersection. Safer an less stressful.

pjc50 10y ago

When we were in Sweden, they had similar ticking buttons that had temporarily been reprogrammed for Eurovision. So the ticking was now the metronome for a gentle monophonic synth version of either "Euphoria" or "Heroes" (Swedish Eurovision entries)

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

amelius 10y ago

Nice, but imho that indicator ring could have been a little bigger. I can imagine that if there are a handful of bicyclists waiting, they all can't see the button, especially if one of them is leaning on the pole.

jonshariat 10y ago

I wrote a post a while back about how count down timers on pedestrian walkways can have unintended consequences. http://www.tragicdesign.com/blog/bad-design/tell-me-when-to-go-bad-ux.html http://www.tragicdesign.com/blog/bad-design/tell-me-when-to-... Cars can spot them as they drive and try to run yellows more often.

jhayward 10y ago
> Cars can spot them as they drive and try to run yellows more often They can also be used to avoid panic stops. I watch them and begin braking if the light will turn yellow before I enter the intersection. Safer an less stressful.