In his old year cabaret show, Peter Pannekoek stated the buttons near crossings don’t actually do anything, they’re just there to just pacify people. I’m fairly certain they in fact do work, though for cyclists they’re mostly redundant: the magnetic loops in the road surface detect cyclists. Only for lightweight carbon bikes a manual button is still useful.
Am I correct in my assumption?
Huh I can’t remember ever seeing those lights. Maybe I’m just blind, or the ones on my route don’t have them.
Guess it depends. The ones here have a red light on the button, a 4rth light on the traffic light itself, and a circle of lights around the 4rth light as a timer.