We live in a pedestrian town — and yet, walking here feels like an exercise in patience. I spend half my day waiting for crosswalks that never seem to change. Where are all the crosswalk buttons?

I have a car, but I can’t imagine I’ve used it more than five times this semester. Where would I go? I walk to class and back. I walk to bars and to restaurants and to Halal Cart and to my friends’ houses, all while barely leaving the sidewalk.

Walking across State College isn’t a difficult task, if you’re patient. Not for the walking, but for the umpteen dreadful stops you’ll inevitably have to make when confronted with that vile neon orange hand.

Of course, the hand doesn’t stop us easily. I doubt there’s a time when a small gap in traffic isn’t filled by five or six pajama-clad undergrads sprinting across, with more trudging behind without a glance to the cars they’re now blocking. But jaywalking isn’t always possible; sometimes you have to sit and wait. Especially on Atherton with its obscene four lanes.

This is an issue in most towns, usually ones — unlike State College — that qualify as cities. What separates State College from the others is the handy inclusion of crosswalk buttons at every intersection. Buttons with a firm spring to them, and a calming robotic voice politely asking for your patience.

I know these buttons probably don’t do anything real. They do make me feel better, though, like someone knows you’re waiting and is trying to help.

This luxury has a minor presence in State College. There are a few, of course — College Ave’s intersections with Atherton and Allen are the two I can think of – but they don’t represent the majority. For the rest of it, we’re stuck waiting, hoping that eventually that little white stick-figure will appear and we can finally get back on our routes.

Where are they? There are only a few major intersections with buttons like Atherton-Beaver and Shortlidge-College, which are filled with students trying to cross heavily-trafficked streets, stuck twiddling their thumbs instead of pressing buttons.

It may be a minor problem, but that doesn’t mean it’s not indicative of some larger systemic issue. One that hasn’t been uncovered just yet. The whole thing gives the impression of someone who set up a few, got tired, and went on home.

State College’s governing body, or whoever actually has this job, doesn’t seem to place the importance that they should on this topic. They don’t even seem to care about the existing ones! Lately, I’ve noticed that several of the existing crosswalk buttons aren’t even in working order. I press them, but they don’t bounce back. The light never turns on — how do I know I pressed it? I never hear that soothing robotic voice. I lose my patience. Where is the crosswalk button committee?

I’m not sure what I want this letter to accomplish, if anything. I’d just like some more crosswalk buttons. For my sanity.