CORONAVIRUS BRINGS OUT THE TRUTH pic.twitter.com/CMoYBfSSda— Sam Baker (@sam_baker) April 7, 2020
Confirming what we've always suspected. (via Fark)
CORONAVIRUS BRINGS OUT THE TRUTH pic.twitter.com/CMoYBfSSda— Sam Baker (@sam_baker) April 7, 2020
3 comments:
The light signal cycle is activated either by pushing the button or (as is more often the case) when a car pulls up to the 'red' signal on the cross street and triggers a sensor buried in the pavement. This causes the light to change from green to red (and turn on the 'walk' signal); however, once this has been done there is a set time — usually around 90 seconds to two minutes — while the system resets and re-arms. During this time you can push on the button until you push the light pole over; it still won't switch until that two minutes or whatever has passed.
-"BB"-
Some buttons for pedestrian lights and elevator "door close" buttons are placebo buttons, but many others aren't.
In modern control systems it is usually configurable, and not at all unusual in some areas to have "shabbat" mode set to come on evening Friday to Evening Saturday.
https://forward.com/schmooze/143843/london-installs-sabbath-mode-walk-signal/
It would not take a genius to work out that with the reduced weekday traffic one could do this every day without problem, and that it would be good to do so.
That doesn't mean that that button was always a placebo button.
Maybe I didn't make it perfectly clear, but I wasn't saying it was a placebo button. In most cases it isn't; one street is considered the 'superior' street and it generally always has the green light with cross-street traffic being held back. But, should a vehicle on the cross street come up to the light, the sensor referenced in my first post comes into play and starts the cycle. And if cars are crossing the 'superior' street in a flow that matches the timing of the cycle, it may appear to someone that the button is indeed just there for you to push without really doing anything.
But, and to use my example of a two-minute reset time-frame, if you approach and desire to cross the 'superior' street AFTER that two-minute period has passed — later in the day, let's say, after traffic on the cross street has thinned and is not longer approaching the 'superior' street as frequently, then pushing the button will activate the cycle; the traffic on the 'superior' street will be given a red light, and your 'walk' light will come on.
-"BB"-
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