The buttons can make crossing more dangerous or walking much slower. It is hard to know how long you have to cross the intersection you are 1-50 feet away from the button when you get a green light and the walk light only goes on after a beg button is pressed.

It would be a waste of time to wait at the intersection for another full cycle when the light is clearly green so I often just go anyway and the light turns red when I'm halfway across the intersection. The results: most of the time I make it across without a problem. Other times, I've ran across the second half of the street when the light changes too soon (although this likely wouldn't work for everyone). I've also gotten stuck in the middle of Washington Avenue downtown a couple times too.

When walking, I could make better choices about when to cross and when not to cross if the beg buttons are replaced with countdown timers.