Forgotten Fan Steve Fallon has discovered an isolated flock of DONT WALK/WALK signs, apparently the last of their species, in an isolated corner of the Bronx. These may be the only ones still remaining in New York City; all others were replaced beginning in 1999 by signals I call the Hand (red) and the Man (green).
There’s also a burgeoning idea to also post “countdown” lights that would enable pedestrians to see how much time they have to cross the street before they’re steamrollered. These lights are already in use in Boston and DC.
WALK/DONT WALK signs first appeared in the late 1950s, along with the large, guy-wired stoplights they were most often attached to, on busier NYC streetcorners. And so they remained, for over four decades, until the DOT converted the signs to pictograms so that non-English speakers could read them. The DOT never inserted an apostrophe, by the way.