Segways patrol the crosswalks

ism tech

Posted Tuesday, 4 September 2007, 10:51 HST @785

I was walking down Fort Street Mall this morning, when I saw 3 HPD officers, each on Segways and waiting for jaywalkers.

One patrolman was writing up a jaywalker by the McDonald’s on Fort and Hotel Street.

I would have taken a picture of the Segway crosswalk police, but I didn’t want to get a ticket either! Jaywalking tickets are now over US$100 apiece, you know.

Anyway, it is that time of year when Fort Street Mall is bursting with students. Hotel Street is restricted to buses and government vehicles, but that doesn’t mean it’s an easy crossing during the day. It’s one of the busiest bus stops on the island. I’ve seen more than a few bus drivers honk and brake for pedestrians who jaywalked in front of their bus. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin has some safety tips in this August 26 article.

It is possible to hack a crosswalk signal with the right sequence of button presses – almost every piece of hardware has an override.

But the Fort Street and Hotel signals cycle pretty quickly.

Not worth the jaywalking ticket, I’d say.

Tags: government, hardware, Hawaii, Honolulu, HPU, mass-transit, USA

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2 responses so far ↓

1 Justin // Tuesday, 4 September 2007, 20:09 HST @173

Can you give extra credit to the person who can successfully hack that crosswalk? Please somebody figure out how to do this!
2 billso // Wednesday, 5 September 2007, 08:22 HST @682

Heh! Extra credit? Check the last link in the article… unless the city has turned off the override, that sequence should work.

Then again, the lights cycle quickly, so it would be hard to tell if the override worked in the first place…