http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/02/10/placebo-buttons/

"In an investigation by ABC news in 2010, only one functioning crosswalk button could be found in Austin, Texas; Gainsville, Fla.; and Syracuse, NY."

"In many offices and cubicle farms, the thermostat on the wall isn’t connected to anything. Landlords, engineers and HVAC specialists have installed dummy thermostats for decades to keep people from costing companies money by constantly adjusting the temperature. According to a 2003 article in the Wall Street Journal, one HVAC specialist surmises 90 percent of all office thermostats are fake (others say it’s more like 2 percent). Some companies even install noise generators to complete the illusion after you turn the knob.

In a survey conducted in 2003 by the Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration News, 72 percent of respondents admitted to installing dummy thermostats."

I live outside Austin, but nobody actually uses those buttons, unless you're not from around here. The city is very eco-friendly and we're all about bicycling and walking everywhere, so the traffic and lights are centered around both those "methods" of transportation.

 

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I use the crosswalk buttons everywhere I go in Austin and elsewhere. It gives me a mini mission objective while I wait to cross *shrug*

 

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Are the traffic lights on timers? Or do they have motion sensors? WTF is going on these days?

 

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Both + magnetic detection loops in the pavement.

Ped buttons have to work for full sensors only, so that is rarely the case. Usually it is a combination of the two, so you get the full cycle, only the light change longer or shorter when the sensors, be they motion, magnetic or push button, send a signal to the control box to change the cycle timing.

 

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