this is a pretty ineffective method. who's going to glance at this much longer than an Obey sticker in a new spot?

OH, a sticker campaign,,,,

WHEE STICKERS!!!!

Still say carrying a small hammer works better

Yes let's abolish beg buttons. Let's instead stop car traffic every stoplight cycle, even when no pedestrians are trying to cross. So much more efficient...

I only wish SDOT would exert their dreaded pro-car authority on North Beacon Hill. The traffic infrastructure along Beacon Avenue is terrible. We need more stoplights, better timing, and elimination of the stupid all way walk sequence at the intersection of Beacon and 15th.

Speaking of that, and as a pedestrian, we need to get rid of four way stops. People are too stupid to know how they work.

@5 - why not stop car traffic every stoplight cycle, even when no pedestrians are trying to cross?

Most crosswalks default to 'don't walk' even when there are no cars coming down the street.

And of all the causes of traffic in this city, cars having to stop for pedestrians (or stopping of no pedestrians) is at the bottom of the list.

The horrific traffic in this city is a result of things like drivers trying to make it through an intersection or make a right-on-red when it's obvious that they'll be left with the ass-end of their car, if not their entire car, stuck in the intersection when the light changes - blocking crosstraffic. Happens every single day at Denny and Fairview, vitrually every intersection on Mercer, and probably countless other intersections across Seattle.

Parked cars cause more traffic in Seattle than pedestrians - with cars (and buses) traveling a short distance in the curbside lane before having to merge into traffic because of a few parked cars, then dashing ahead when there's a gap on the curbside lane again, then merging back in again... Traffic waiting for cars to parallel park... Basically, traffic caused by people storing their private property on a public right-of-way.

In short, our terrible traffic is a result of SDOT incompetence.

No, SDOT is not making you "beg" to cross the street. Accessible pedestrian pushbuttons are a federal requirement under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Want to get rid of them? Then buckle up for another ADA-based civil rights lawsuit.

"Where pedestrian signals are provided at pedestrian street crossings, they shall include accessible pedestrian signals and pedestrian pushbuttons complying with sections 4E.08 through 4E.13 of the MUTCD (incorporated by reference, see R104.2). Operable parts shall comply with R403." - US Access Board PROWAG

And just a general comment here, aspiring activists of all stripes: learn your organizing 101. Get clear on 1) what you want to happen, and 2) who has the power to give that to you before leaping to conclusions and aggravating the very people whose help you're going to need in the future. Sheesh.

@4 - One person I know discovered that they could 'crash' the buttons by pressing them repeatedly until they hit some sort of overload condition and freaked out. I tried it with one though, and it didn't work.

Of course, at least our pedestrian button actually work, for the most part, unlike Boston and NYC's "nothing buttons", which were disconnected some time before 2004.

make every intersection downtown like the one at 1st and Cherry, or alaskan and california in west seattle. peds all cross at the same time and don't cross when huge metal objects might cause harm to them.

Hey Charles did you hear the story about the hot pizza mess caused by an unruly cyclist on a shared path with peds when he almost killed an older woman? then he blamed it on them. nice!