Being a Pedestrian 101

Either you've seen this happen or you yourself are the offender. Here's what I'm talking about:

A few days ago I was the first person to stop at a red light on a very busy street intersection. I had a good 2 1/2-3 minute wait ahead of me. As did any pedestrians wanting to cross to the other side of the street. What I'm about to share with you, bothers me to my core. So I stop my car at the light and up walks a 40ish year old woman and her 12ish year old son. The woman started to frantically push the button you push when you want to cross the street. So in 15 seconds, when she was still waiting she began her frantic pushing again. And again 20 seconds after that. Each time she did her pushing and realized she still had to wait, she would use all sorts of body language to let the world know she was aggravated to be waiting. This is not the first time I've seen such behavior from people waiting to cross the street. And every time I want to roll down my window and give them a lesson on the whole button-pushy thingy box. So, to get it off my chest, here it is:

I know we all hate to see this when we arrive at a corner:

But the fact is, is that to safely cross the street, you must obey these signs. They are there for your protection and safety and livelihood. Now, if you happen upon this sign and you want to cross the street you have to push the button. It looks like this:

Here's the clincher, you only have to push the button ONCE. One time, that's it. You don't have to push it till you bruise your thumb. That doesn't make the traffic signals change any faster. Traffic signals are on a timer depending upon time of day and volume of traffic at that hour. When I see someone pushing this thing over and over and over it drives me nuts. They look silly because their efforts are in vain. The reason you push the button, is to let the computers that run these systems know that you are waiting. Once it is pushed, you can kick back and relax and wait your turn. Some people look offended that the street signals are making them wait. Like, how dare you let all these cars go before me. Here I am waiting to cross the street and I pushed your button a thousand times, how come it's not working???? So after you wait, your patience is rewarded with this:
Now, I've seen some here in California that give a person 30 seconds to cross the street. I've also seen as low as 10. Here's how that works- They figure you are going to take 3.5 steps every 2 seconds. So the bigger the intersection crossing, the more time alotted to you. So to re-cap, you only have to push the button ONCE. Please, if you are the offending party, change your ways. You look silly with all that pushing.