Placebo of Pushing Buttons
#1
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Placebo of Pushing Buttons
For Exercise in New York Futility, Push Button - NYTimes.com
Why Do People Push Placebo Buttons?
Placebo Buttons « You Are Not So Smart
For years, at thousands of New York City intersections, well-worn push buttons have offered harried walkers a rare promise of control over their pedestrian lives. The signs mounted above explained their purpose:
To Cross Street
Push Button
Wait for Walk Signal
Dept. of Transportation
Millions of dutiful city residents and tourists have pushed them over the years, thinking it would help speed them in their journeys. Many trusting souls might have believed they actually worked. Others, more cynical, might have suspected they were broken but pushed anyway, out of habit, or in the off chance they might bring a walk sign more quickly.
To Cross Street
Push Button
Wait for Walk Signal
Dept. of Transportation
Millions of dutiful city residents and tourists have pushed them over the years, thinking it would help speed them in their journeys. Many trusting souls might have believed they actually worked. Others, more cynical, might have suspected they were broken but pushed anyway, out of habit, or in the off chance they might bring a walk sign more quickly.
Placebo Buttons « You Are Not So Smart
#4
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Tho in the article I think they mean that pushing the button more than once doesn't do anything.
#6
I like those up above can relate to the motorcycle issue. Even with a gross weight of about 560lbs and around 780 with me clothed it still doesn't trip the sensor. However, soon as I jump off and hit the button it changes -_-.
#8
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As the the site says "most" and its more so in NYC crosswalk lights. Last time I pressed a push to walk was in Oregon and they as well worked there. I can see them not replacing them in NYC lol that's a lot of people walking there and so I'm sure people over push the buttons and they break lol
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Plenty of lights back home that eventually had to be run if nobody else came along.
#10
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In most cases it has nothing to do with weight, but the fact that your bike has too little metal to trip the electrical sensor. You see those loops cut into the street at lights? They generate a magnetic field that is disrupted when a car comes along. That lets the system know what is happening. A lot of motorcycles just don't have the necessary amount of metal to interfere with the field, hence the light won't change. I've head of all kinds of tricks ranging from placing a magnet at the bottom of your bike to tapping the started motor. Do they work? Who knows. Maybe.
Plenty of lights back home that eventually had to be run if nobody else came along.
Plenty of lights back home that eventually had to be run if nobody else came along.
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#14
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Yeah, where there is a lot of foot traffic it is a waste of time to hook up the buttons because you're almost guaranteed that there is a pedestrian waiting to cross at each corner of the cycle, hence wiring the button and programming a second timing sequence is redundant. Places with less foot traffic have to have them initiate a secondary timing sequence, otherwise timing favors the faster moving cars.
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