An interesting piece of information from Waaah!. Henry claims that many of the buttons on pedestrian crossing do nothing, and that the traffic lights simply carry on going through their pre-defined cyle regardless. At busy junctions this does makes some sense, I suppose, given that there will always be pedestrians waiting to cross - and having a button to press makes people believe that they are in control. It also reminds me of something that I found slightly puzzling at the time.

A few years ago we lived in Kowloon, and very close to our apartment they built a large new shopping centre just across the road from the MTR station. A few months later someone in authority must have noticed the large number of people crossing the road, because they built a pedestrian crossing. This one was definitely controlled by the buttons, and I used to watch in amazement as people waited patiently for the lights to change but didn't think of pressing the buttons. The Impatient Gweilo would come along and press the button (years of training in London, you see), and the lights would duly change, just like magic.

I can only assume either that most people in Hong Kong know what Henry has pointed out and so don't bother pressing the buttons, or that these type of crossing are relatively uncommon - in most places in Hong Kong the only way to cross the road is via a bridge or a subway. Or perhaps it just takes a few weeks for people to get used to a new crossing. Whatever, given that most people in Hong Kong jab the 'door close' buttons impatiently ever time they get in the lift, I found it quite strange that the same didn't seem to apply to a pedestrian crossing.