Well, it’s not really true that the buttons don’t do anything. They have a placebo effect that creates the illusion control. The placebo effect is something.
The placebo effect can be pretty powerful. I heard about a recent study on Hidden Brain where two groups got a placebo sugar pill; one group knew they were getting a placebo, and the other group wasn’t told they were getting a placebo. Yet both groups experienced the effects of the placebo, possibly because the people who were told they were taking a placebo might have suspected they were being lied to.
Personally, because of this reason and the reasons I outlined above regarding programming, I don’t see this as a problem. People are not always rational and logical beings; we’re dumb panicky animals when we get in herds, so sometimes creating the illusion of control is the rational choice.
They do it here too. But the button is not disconnected. They just change a setting in the signal controller called “recall” which makes the controller behave as though the button is pushed each cycle without anyone pushing the button. Some signals are set to recall during the day, but not at night.
If the button were actually making any change, the pedestrian signals would say Don’t Walk (steady orange man) throughout any entire cycle when the button is not pushed,
At least IMO. I couldn’t understand why not just NOT HAVE walk symbols, then, and allow pedestrians to cross when they had the green, which would be the case in lieu of any “walk” sign.
Remember the Andy Griffith show that covered this? New pharmacist came to town and refused to sell the elderly lady her sugar pills. The lady was sure she was dying without them and Andy eventually convinced the pharmacist to sell her the sugar pills. That’s how its done here in Mayberry.
I can’t remember if the police car in the show was a 1960 or a 1961. I liked them both.
Both, actually, and more…
The show aired from 1960 to–IIRC–1967, and the Ford police cars were updated every year or two.
One of the things that I always found a bit curious was that the cars were obviously coated with Cosmoline (or some similar substance) in order to conceal the paint’s gloss. I guess that they didn’t want to deal with light reflecting from the car to the camera.
Seems like every couple years they came out with a new and improved paint. From lacquer, to enamel, to acrylic lacquer, to acrylic enamel, and so on in some order that I don’t remember anymore. The enamel though was high gloss right out of the box and if you buffed it, you ruined the gloss.
Having the walk symbol allows drivers making the turn a chance to do so without yielding to pedestrians. It seems to me that the sidewalks are full during rush hour just as the roads are full of cars. If the crosswalk is full of pedestrians at rush hour, drivers can’t turn unless the walk sign gives them a space without pedestrians to do so.
i personally have not while i was driving, but my boyfriend and i were on our way home one night and a guy in all black (except for his SHOES) decided it was a good idea to bend down and tie his shoes in the middle of a busy highway.
my boyfriend and i mentioned this instance to the local police department we’re friends with and according to them " Yeah, that was frank… he does that stupid stuff all the time. He’s the one who would get hit and not know it since hes always drunk " .
the only thing that prevented us from hitting him was the fact that his shoes were white. LOL
Back to standard time and early darkness. The dark clad pedestrian and cyclist “ninjas” were easier to see in bright sunshine. Not so much in darkness.
I encountered an odd pedestrian yesterday. At a very busy 35mph boulevard a somewhat odd acting pedestrian pushed the signal button. He then stepped to the side and was hidden from my view by a utility pole. My light turned green but no one used the crosswalk. When I pulled forward I saw him about 100 feet away weaving between vehicles as they stopped for the red light. I will never figure them out.