I've seen enough crosswalks that go from solid red hand to a flashing red hand immediately, that I now ignore the flashing red hand until the street light turns yellow.

Shortening it makes it dangerous for a lot of parties.

Please complain to your local traffic engineers. The MUTCD requires at least a 4-second walk signal and specifies 7 seconds as the normal minimum. http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/htm/2009/part4/fig4e_02_longdesc.h...