For Exercise in New York Futility, Push Button - NYTimes.com

Why Do People Push Placebo Buttons?

Placebo Buttons « You Are Not So Smart

 

THE HISTORY ERASER BUTTON REMIX - YouTube

 

They don't work? Funny that one night in high school we were at a red light trying to get it to change from red for quite a while till my friend got out and pushed the button. Light changed almost immediately.

 

Yeah, happens to my motorcycle friends, they sensors wont pick up their bikes at red lights so they get off and push the button.


Tho in the article I think they mean that pushing the button more than once doesn't do anything.

 

I've done this more than a few times.

Also hit them to make the green light last longer, like for our caravan going to BAM

 

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 -_-.

 

 

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

 

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.

 

w3rd, my friend is has been talking about inventing a mini electro magnet that will trip ANY sensor. I keep telling him to make sure he doesn't make it too strong, I can just picture him flipping the magnet and watch his bike go airborne and get stuck to a street lamp, lol

 

I figured out crosswalk buttons didn't do anything when I was 12.

I figured it was common knowledge.

 

You grew up in New York City? cuz those are the ones that don't work, ours do.

 

Did not read.

I thought it would mention the repeated pressing of the button doing jack squat.

*slowly steps backwards whistling*

 

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.

 

In downtown Sac (especially around the capitol) they dont even have buttons for the cross walk. The walk/yield are automatic with the red/green lights.