At intersection “A,” a pedestrian crossing the street gets a “don’t walk” flashing countdown signal starting at 22 seconds; at intersection “B,” which happens to be a just a block south of intersection “A,” a pedestrian crossing the exact same street gets a “don’t walk” flashing countdown signal starting at 9 seconds — between 22 and 9 seconds, the signal says “walk”. These are real intersections in downtown DC (along 7th Street NW) and I just do not get it.

I’m not so quick to dismiss the snow hypothesis, though — another malfunctioning pedestrian signal near my home was blamed by our local DOT on an electrical storm. Not quite the same problem (it was just holding a “don’t walk” way too long) as in the video, but made me wonder who manufactures these, and how often do they malfunction? Anybody know?

Far more likely that someone got up there and packed snow into or otherwise obscured the LEDs to create the effect. Of course the DOT isn’t going to admit that because they don’t want anyone else getting ideas for creative ways to vandalize signals.