I have a peculiar kind of beg button next to my house that I've yet to understand. Well, first the buttons do get the light to change - the light only changes when the button is pressed or if there's a car waiting. As such they are somewhat necessary, though rather hostile to the bikers that also frequent the intersection and will wait forever unless they go up on the sidewalk and hit the button. (Also I'm pretty sure a couple of the buttons aren't hooked up, meaning that you are at the mercy of a car arriving - but the whole system is so unpredictable and without feedback that I can never quite be sure, and though I've complained I have no idea if it's been fixed or not because I can't be entirely sure what behavior is intentional.)

Anyway, that's the first part... but curiously once the light changes only the side that hit the beg button gets a walk sign. There is no turn arrows, nothing about the intersection that makes it asymmetrical, both sides of the street get exactly the same amount of green light. But in an effort to make everyone beg out of principle, if the person across the street hits the button you still don't get a walk signal.