Please don’t remove this phase. This is a dangerous intersection for pedestrians, so the automatic phase is very helpful. Removing it would increase delays for pedestrians, possibly leading to unsafe crossings.

Can’t they just press the pedestrian walk button?

Not having an automatic pedestrian phase does not increase safety. I drive walk and bike this intersection and cars by far have the longest wait times already, let’s not make things worse for people that drive just for the heck of it.