We pass a number of these on the regular route for our bike rides, but of course they're all over town. You know the drill: You push the button, nothing happens, and cars keep coming. You push it again. And again. Nothing happens. Finally, the lights change, cars come to a halt, and you cross the street. But it occurs to you that the walk sign coming on had absolutely nothing to do with your pushing the button. You wonder if it's even connected, or whether it's a placebo button designed to make pedestrians feel they can control their fate, even if they can't really.Wiki summary with a couple links. Reddit thread on this topic. Some people argue that "placebo buttons" are common on traffic crossings, elevators, office thermostats. Others argue that the buttons actually do modify things that go unnoticed, such as the length of time a light stays red or green. TYWKIWDBI doesn't pretend to have an answer.
Photo credit to Madison Guy.
there is a traffic light by me that you need to press the button otherwise you will not get the walk signal even when it would be time for the pedestrian to walk.
ReplyDelete@Jacob - There are a few like that around where I live.
ReplyDeleteIn my experience as a pedestrian in the Boston area, there are a lot of intersections where pressing the button will eventually get you a walk light that you wouldn't otherwise get, but the wait is so long (if you time it wrong, you will wait through the entire light cycle for car traffic) that pedestrians give up and cross when the traffic is clear. I do know of a few intersections that have automatic walk lights like NYC and those walk buttons are indeed placebo buttons, though some are set up to not give you an automatic walk light during the day and no walk light unless you press the button late at night. So, it's possible that some buttons are placebo buttons only at some times of day.
ReplyDeleteYeah, there is no definitive answer because it depends on how they are programmed (or not programmed).
ReplyDeleteBut its common knowledge that many, in fact, ARE placebo buttons. Sometimes because the signalized intersection was updated with modern light controls that no longer utilize the button. But why pay extra to take it out?
Where I am it most definitely is not a placebo. There are few pedestrians, having it go to a walk signal without people waiting would be an enormous waste of time. Pressing the butting simply adds that to the normal queue for one cycle of the traffic lights.
ReplyDeleteHahahah... the text with that button is apt for support of the placebo theory.
ReplyDeleteThe schizophrenic sometimes gravitate toward the written word and will often read aloud the contents of any signs they happen to pass.
The sane, perhaps, accept the signs for what they are - a distilled argument by authority (and, in most cases, merely a suggestion) ... but I like to think that the 1988 B-movie classic They Live was dead-on in some respects.