benos Posted December 11, 2004 Share Posted December 11, 2004 Frequently, I drive down a sort of a by-pass road for Mill Ave (Ash, north of University). The road doesn't get a whole lot of traffic, and as a pedestrian it is (was) fairly easy to cross at the crosswalk. And traffic even stops for you if you decide you can't wait for an open spot. Well guess what, now there's a traffic light there so every stupid, non-attention paying, cell phone-talking idiot can punch a button then mindlessly cross the street. I hate that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Habicht Posted December 11, 2004 Share Posted December 11, 2004 Funny --- I can remember my dad teaching me to push the button and wait for the light to change. Then a few years later, along came my brother, who taught me to either push the button and wait, OR to not push the button and jaywalk. Mixing those concepts he considered to be quite rude...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooter Posted December 11, 2004 Share Posted December 11, 2004 It could be worse. They could set the light to turn red just as you approach even with no one there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Posted December 11, 2004 Share Posted December 11, 2004 Nik, I always wondered if that button was actually connected to the light, or if it was just put there to give the impatient pedestrian something to do and some sense of control. Especially at those intersections with a traffic camera.....somewhere at headquarters is some guy going "hey Bob, get over here and look at this idiot he's found the stoopid button and now he's trying to wear it out." ..... OK, I guess I do have a basic mistrust of government. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caspian_45 Posted December 11, 2004 Share Posted December 11, 2004 Nik, I always wondered if that button was actually connected to the light, or if it was just put there to give the impatient pedestrian something to do and some sense of control. Especially at those intersections with a traffic camera.....somewhere at headquarters is some guy going "hey Bob, get over here and look at this idiot he's found the stoopid button and now he's trying to wear it out." ..... OK, I guess I do have a basic mistrust of government. Sam with the way thing are today you are probably more right than wrong. I live and work in and around a college town. Many of the buttons are hanging by the wires or tore off the pole completely. Really makes you wonder. Of course most students cross the road any where they want, cross walk or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LPatterson Posted December 11, 2004 Share Posted December 11, 2004 Ah yes college students the leaders of tomorrow. Interpretation: College, a place to get drunk underage and not have anyone care until you drink yourself to death. Or you can attend the University Of Michigan and see how much pot you can smoke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Dame Posted December 11, 2004 Share Posted December 11, 2004 attend the University Of Michigan and see how much pot you can smoke. if they put that on their brochure, they'd get flooded with enrollment requests I wonder if they offer an agiculture scholarship Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Habicht Posted December 11, 2004 Share Posted December 11, 2004 Nik, I always wondered if that button was actually connected to the light, or if it was just put there to give the impatient pedestrian something to do and some sense of control. Especially at those intersections with a traffic camera.....somewhere at headquarters is some guy going "hey Bob, get over here and look at this idiot he's found the stoopid button and now he's trying to wear it out." ..... OK, I guess I do have a basic mistrust of government. Well, I learned about the buttons in Germany --- where I'm sure they had to be connected, otherwise they could be eliminated as inefficient? Over here --- hey that could be a government mandated placebo...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lndshrk Posted December 11, 2004 Share Posted December 11, 2004 It recently appeared in the NY Times, that in NYC where world's worst traffic exists, most of the push to cross buttons have been disconnected by the traffic authority. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Habicht Posted December 11, 2004 Share Posted December 11, 2004 Ah yes college students the leaders of tomorrow. Interpretation: College, a place to get drunk underage and not have anyone care until you drink yourself to death. Or you can attend the University Of Michigan and see how much pot you can smoke. Want to reduce college drinking? Want to reduce drunk driving crashes among teenagers/kids in their early twenties? Adopt the European model: Beer and Wine at 14, hard liquor at 16, driver's permit at 18. I remain convinced --- after watching my cousin and his friends have booze parties when he was 15-16 --- that it's effective. Everybody was staying over at those parties, nobody was driving away. After he'd been drunk the second time, he decided that it wasn't much fun. I remain convinced that it's better to have your parents expose you to alcohol than your peers. Back when I was an EMT, I dreaded reunion week and fraternity initiation week at Princeton. More alcohol related calls than at any other time of year...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Ankeny Posted December 12, 2004 Share Posted December 12, 2004 Traffic lights? We don't have no freaking traffic lights where I live. In fact, the closest traffic light is in the next town 22 miles away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
titandriver Posted December 12, 2004 Share Posted December 12, 2004 Think we got ya beat Ron, closest traffic light to me is 28 miles. And our "stop" signs are yellow instead of red --- just kind of a reminder to slow down & look both ways before pulling out!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimel Posted December 12, 2004 Share Posted December 12, 2004 Ya know Rich...If I didn't already know where you lived (more or less) I would have know the Owyhee County Idaho part just from the Yellow Stop Signs comment! Nearest stoplight is 14 miles. One thing I have noticed about the recent generation of the stupid camera actuated stoplights is they SUCK during high traffic times when heavy flow is coming from multiple directions. They seem to revert to some stupid timed sequence which invariably is wrong. On the campus where I work the traffic before and after big games is so bad that they just flip the lights to flashing yellow or red (depending on direction) and plant someone in the middle of the intersection to direct traffic the good old fashioned way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shooter Grrl Posted December 13, 2004 Share Posted December 13, 2004 Well now - out here in the *real sticks*, Mr. RB drives 44 miles to work without encountering a single stoplight!!!!!! (That's to the South of us!) If you go North, there's no light for at least 55 miles (haven't been further than that yet!) However, to be honest, Adamsville has one light! I still giggle whenever I hear it referred to as THE light Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raz-0 Posted December 13, 2004 Share Posted December 13, 2004 It could be worse. They could set the light to turn red just as you approach even with no one there. if only it were a joke. On the main highway to access my local universuty, they installed a multi-million dollar smart light system which in theory has all the intersections monitored and the lights working in conjunction. It's so smart, I have been at one of the 4 way intersections at 3am and been the ONLY car there while it skippedmy direction multiple times and gave every other direction a green. Smart isn't the word I would use to describe the system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted December 13, 2004 Share Posted December 13, 2004 lndshrk has it right... I think I read the same article at about the same time. The buttons are just stress-relievers or something. Useless, non-connected, artificial little devices that con and satiate the minds of those who believe. And of course--without fail--the pedestrian is seen pounding on it repeatedly as though that will expedite its function more fully..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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