Great post! The call buttons always make me feel so devalued as a traveler and a person, especially when you get there just as the light turns green and you have to wait through the entire next cycle because the call button won't turn on the walk symbol mid-phase.

Franklin and Lyndale is an awful intersection in so many ways. Even if you had no buttons and every vehicle phase also had a pedestrian phase with auditory announcements, you'd still have to deal with the jungle of permissive left-turning vehicles who think squeezing through too small of a gap between cars is way more important than the pedestrian in the crosswalk, blatantly ignored NO RTOR signs, yellow- and red-light runners, and drivers who seem to think they're still/already on the freeway. But yes, the buttons are also frustrating.

Another one of my favorites is 19th Ave & Riverside near the U of M West Bank campus. If you're crossing Riverside on the east side of the intersection, you get an automatic signal. If you're crossing on the west side, you don't. Crossing 19th is perilous no matter what the signal says because the turning geometry is so wide that the drivers fly through at ridiculous speeds. The parked cars on Riverside block a pedestrian's view of potential turning vehicles on the NE corner.