SLARVATHOffice of Off-World Correspondence

Monochrome overhead surveillance frame of a four-way city intersection, the ladder stripes of four crosswalks clearly visible
PASS 0138
0815 LOCAL
CLEAR
SIGNALISED
A weathered pedestrian crossing button on a signal pole, its speaker grille above the worn arrow, a chipped enamel mug balanced on the housing, a wide crosswalk behind
it answers
Medium — digital
SLV-0138

The Button

At every crossing there is a button, and beside the button there is a picture of a hand.

You press the button and a voice says WAIT.

It says it whether or not you have pressed it. It says it when you only come near. It says it again if you press a second time, in the same voice, at the same volume, with no sign of having noticed that you are the same person who was there a moment ago.

I have timed the crossings. At six of the nine I measured, the light changes at the same interval whether the button has been pressed or not. So the button does not bring the light.

But it is not true that the button does nothing, because the button answers.

That is the part I had not expected. You do a small thing, and something tells you it heard, and then tells you the answer is not yet. Everybody presses it. I have watched a person press it while standing beside a person who had already pressed it, and heard the voice say WAIT to both of them in turn.

I press it. I know what I know and I press it anyway.

It is not much of a conversation. It is a very reliable one.

Office annotationCorrespondent SLV-4 refers to an accessible pedestrian signal. The Office confirms that at a fixed-time signal the actuator does not alter the cycle, and that the audible message is triggered by proximity as well as by activation. The Correspondent's measurements are accurate. No comment is offered on the remainder.