Delightful crosswalk sign alterations

Urban Prankster has photos of some funny crosswalk sign hacks.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Anonymous

A couple years ago someone spray-painted sissors into the hand of the stick-child in the “slow children playing” signs all over Ann Arbor.
Yamara

This post provides me with an excuse to link to one of my favorite Bob the Angry Flower installments!
Anonymous

Alright these are funny. This little signs can bring a chuckle to the most cranky person. We need more of them.
bearchild

When I’m getting off a bus, I love to run ahead and push the button for the pedestrian crossing 50 metres or so in front of the vehicle, then walk across with a smug grin on my face.

One of these days, I’m going to get run over.
Anonymous

think these are placebo buttons too )
Hattmannen

Wow! Looks like BoingBoing managed to induce the so called slashdot-effect on urbanprankster (or there may just be some other issue with the page at the moment). :-)
Restless

Today is one of the days I’d rapid-fire press that “reboot universe” button like it’s the laser button on a Defender coin-op.
stratojoe

neat, funny! but i think the word ‘hack’ is starting to get a little overused. .
MichaelRN

Or just press “hyperspace”, and hope nothing else is in your new location.
Dapremonster

Total Panic Crisis Button was made by Jason Eppink, a fellow Pepperdine alum. He’s also at least partially responsible for this great video Things That Don’t Exist. It pleases me to no end that he’s the one who made those.
Mark Frauenfelder

‘hack’ was starting to get overused in the 1960s.
mdh

Looks like BoingBoing managed to induce the so called slashdot-effect on urbanprankster

Do you mean when /. boings things?
trippcook

Uh-oh, I’ve just been DICTIONARY BURNED by #23!
Anonymous

A while back in a design journal there was a guy doing his own walk/don’t walk silhouettes – I guess if everyone’s moving to LEDs that’s less of an option.

But he did do a good subway information sign – a sad infographic man in a red strikethough circle: “Traveling in despair prohibited. Keep spirits up.”
Jerril

Pranks and vandalism are now “hacks”?

Pranks and vandalism have been hacks for a VERY VERY long time. Citation: Jargon File aka the Hackers Dictionary:

hack
2. /n./ An incredibly good, and perhaps very time-consuming, piece of work that produces exactly what is needed.
5. /vt./ To pull a prank on. See sense 2 and hacker (sense 5).
9. [MIT] /v./ To explore the basements, roof ledges, and steam tunnels of a large, institutional building, to the dismay of Physical Plant workers and (since this is usually performed at educational institutions) the Campus Police. This activity has been found to be eerily similar to playing adventure games such as Dungeons and Dragons and Zork. See also vadding.

hacker /n./
7. One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations.
8. [deprecated] A malicious meddler who tries to discover sensitive information by poking around. Hence `password hacker’, `network hacker’. The correct term for this sense is cracker.
joncro

I saw a great one in NYC years ago…..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/leolondon/3292393737/in/photostream/
Shelby Davis

Oh, my gosh. Freshman orientation is this week.

Be right back, folks.
Roy Trumbull

San Francisco requires a main power disconnect just inside the door where the hardware resides. A power feed and disconnect were installed several years ahead of time in a space that would be a computer room. In the meantime it was an office. Next to this impressive switch was a sign that said: “Don’t touch! Earth rotation control.”
pentomino

I remember seeing a news story about a guy who got busted for modifying other street signs. He changed a “Walk/Don’t Walk” sign to a “To Be/Not To Be” sign.
Shirlyn

Wow the Reboot Universe is great, i hope by pressing it we all go to stone age where no sign boards are available.
Anonymous

I stumbled here too and I also came across the placebo button page. Stumbleupon is trying to control our minds.
crhickerson

This immediately brought to mind a much loved crossing sign in my neighborhood. Every so often, the city cleans or replaces the sign … and someone changes it back to this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cherie_priest/131547948/

(At the moment, the sign’s clean.)
Nadreck

None of these hold a candle to the greatest cross-walk button gag ever. The old prank show Candid Camera cut a deal with a big demolition company to let them hook up the detonation switch on several of their large projects to buttons above the regular “Push to cross” buttons. The new buttons were labelled “Press to Destroy Building”.

Eventually someone would always press the wrong button, without really reading the clearly marked label. Then the 10-second warning horns would blow and an office tower a block or two away would implode! The people’s different reactions were great: some were real cool and tried to just saunter away as if they hadn’t just destroyed a whole building; others ran like crazy as if they were afraid of getting billed for this disaster.
Anonymous

crhickerson @ 18:

You may be amused to know that the former professional wrestler known as “The Claw” was a substitute teacher at my high school around the time I graduated (cir. 1990).
chikadee

There is a street near where I live called “Gender”. They just put up a cross walk/light at an intersection. The crosswalk sign states “Push Button to Cross Gender” My mom poignantly stated, “If only it were that easy”
showcasejase

Sorta like my fav graffiti this week:

http://twitpic.com/grqai
ValuedRug

Wow I guess every time I pop my collar and turn my hat around backwards, I’ve actually been hacking. Douche hacking.
Anonymous

Why do I get the feeling that these are all placebo buttons? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo_button
Anonymous

that was really strange, I came here from stumbleupon. the last link i was on was the wikipedia placebo buttons article and when i clicked onto this right at the top of the comments a link to what i just read! weird :)
trippcook

Let’s not debate whether or not this is funny (I mean, it is if you’re 15, but whatever) — let’s talk about how the word “hack” has come to lose all meaning. Pranks and vandalism are now “hacks”? Any change to anything is a hack? Hey, check out this awesome “sandwich hack” where I cut off the crusts. Whoa! Oh, man, and then I totally hacked my drink when I put a straw in it for easier sipping.

I AM SUCH A HACKER I CAN’T STAND IT.