Beg buttons suck

Please, may I cross?
London, ON
March 2020
This photo originally shared on Instagram

This is a beg button, so-called because pedestrians push it to beg for permission to cross intersections without being run over by otherwise smartphone-distracted SUV drivers.

I've always hated them. No one else has to beg for permission to cross, so why should it fall to us to touch a filthy button?

Before #COVID19 / #coronavirus rewrote the rules of urban engagement, I had already been modifying my behavior by only wearing gloves, or by not pressing the buttons at all. Now, I'm done with the button silliness for good.

I'm an original Montrealer, which means full-combat jaywalking is baked into my DNA. I'll take the thrill of risking a spontaneous game of real-world Frogger over the guarantee of picking up something from a button that likely hasn't been cleaned in....well, ever.

It's time to demand better on-street designs, safer rules - like an end to right on red* - and no more idiotic buttons.

They're probably not connected to anything, anyway.

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* Go ahead, fight me on this one.

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