My high-school job was in a shopping-center (aka strip-mall) video store, a small local chain. The particular shopping center was about half a mile long on both sides of the street, and so it had a few lights on the main street where shoppers could enter traffic, but the one closest to me was a difficult one-- it took a very long time to change, and there was no trick to tripping its car sensor-- either there wasn't one, or it was broken.
However, one could get out of one's car (well, generally the driver'd send a passenger if available) and hit the button to cross the main street. Suddenly the main street light turned to yellow and you had to bolt back to the car.