2020-045 Push Button EliminationDate: April 30, 2020 Report No. 2020-045
INFORMAL STAFF REPORT
TO MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
SUBJECT:
On April 22, Council Members Briggs and Davis sent in requests from a resident for Traffic
Management staff to deactivate the push button walk buttons around the Downtown Square. The
request was made to minimize the physical touching of objects due to fear of the spreading of
germs. In addition, a request was made by Council Member Davis to revert the walk phase to sync
up with the traffic cycle. An additional request was received regarding the possible conversion of
the City’s traffic signals to a ‘flashing’ operation (yellow on the main street and red on the side
street) in order to minimize delay for motorists. This report will address all of these requests
because they have similar impacts on the traffic signal operations relative to pedestrians.
BACKGROUND:
There have been news articles written regarding cities placing signage over the push buttons
warning people to not touch the buttons. These warnings are not ADA compliant as a visually
impaired person would not be able to distinguish the message provided.
To provide some background, the City Council approved a pilot program late in 2019 to create
“all walk” crosswalks in the Square. To initiate the “all walk” crosswalk, the pedestrian would
press the push button at any of the four signalized intersections around the square and traffic
would come to a stop and allow all pedestrians to safely walk in any direction. The pilot program
was to be completed in the Spring with the results analyzed, feedback obtained by the Square
stakeholders, and then reported to City Council for direction. Unfortunately, the study was cut
short due to the closures of businesses and lack of pedestrians in response the disaster declaration
of COVID-19.
Regarding the de-activation of the push buttons at the Square, Engineering staff consulted with
Emergency Management (EM) staff if there was general concern with germs being spread from
pushing a button. According to EM, there is conflicting information as to the effectiveness or
reasonableness of removing all touch points. It is urged that people wash or sanitize their hands
after touching common areas such as gas pumps, ATMs, and door handles.
However, should the city go through the effort to deactivate the push buttons, it should be expanded
beyond the Square to include the most used pedestrian locations across the city. There is a total of
126 signalized intersections across the entire city, and only about 50 intersections are considered
highly used by pedestrians. The cost estimate to deactivate the push buttons and sync the WALK
indication to the green signal at these 50 locations is approximately 100 staff hours and $25,000.
This would include:
1) retiming the signals to automatically call the pedestrian WALK signal when the green
indication comes up for cars and
2) covering the buttons with a sign informing pedestrians that the button is no longer required.
Date: April 30, 2020 Report No. 2020-045
A similar cost will be incurred when the buttons are placed back into operation. There are other
considerations, however, associated with the elimination of the push buttons.
Currently, the traffic signals will provide a green indication on the major roadway and only serve
the side streets if a vehicle is detected by the signal or pedestrian pushes a button. With the buttons
deactivated and the WALK running concurrently with the vehicle green indication, the signal will
only serve the side street if a vehicle approaches from that direction. There is no way for a
pedestrian to activate the WALK signal. This is not usually a problem because there is typically
adequate side street traffic to provide enough WALK time for the expected pedestrian volumes.
However, with traffic volumes diminished due to the stay at home order, there are many locations
where significant time will pass between vehicles approaching on the side street and, thus, between
WALK signals. Staff’s concern is that, without that WALK indication being prompted, pedestrians
will choose to cross against traffic out of frustration and unwillingness to wait.
Similarly, if the traffic signals are placed in a flash operation, all pedestrian signals to cross the
main street will be locked into a DON’T WALK state. There is no way to display a WALK signal
for the pedestrians if the vehicular signal remains flashing yellow.
In order to ensure that a pedestrian will get a timely WALK signal without pushing the button, the
traffic signals will have to operate on a ‘fixed-time’ basis and serve every approach during each
cycle. This means that the green light will be displayed at each approach in turn whether there is a
vehicle or pedestrian present or not. While this will solve the pedestrian issue, it has the potential
to aggravate motorists who will be forced to stop at a red signal when no other traffic is present.
Again, staff is concerned that motorists repeatedly confronted with this scenario will, like the
frustrated pedestrians described above, move through the signal without waiting for a green light.
The remaining 76 signals could be monitored for pedestrian activity, but currently do not appear
to have much use.
Based on the level of effort and cost, and so few pedestrians out and about, staff does not
recommend making the modifications at this time.
CONCLUSION:
City staff are actively working on improving the signal timing citywide to better serve the
COVID19 traffic conditions. Staff does not recommend the removal or deactivation of the
pedestrian push buttons due to the potential safety implications for pedestrians and drivers.
STAFF CONTACT:
Brian Jahn
City Traffic Engineer
940-349-8148
Brian.Jahn@cityofdenton.com