That button at the traffic light doesn't work at all
Well, that's nice. Let me start by saying that I really hate waiting. I just don't like it at all. It becomes a bit less bad if I feel like I can do something about it. For example, at the traffic light; if you don't press the button, that thing will never turn green. You can wait a long time — I don't like that, so I press the button. It turns out that the whole button doesn't work at all. Uh, excusez moi?
The AD reported this yesterday morning and I'm completely thrown off by it. Beau van Erven Dorens was too, by the way, because he also started talking about it during his show yesterday. Are we all being massively fooled? The AD also looked into that and they spoke with Gerard Tertoolen, who is a traffic psychologist. It's not just a fun word for a game of hangman, but also a profession I had never heard of until today.
But anyway, if anyone should understand traffic, it's him. So, what's up with those buttons? Just to be clear: this really applies to the buttons for (moped) cyclists. ‘Because they,’ and this is a direct quote from Mr. Tertoolen, ‘often indeed have no important function.’ My life is a lie.
‘Those buttons have actually become unnecessary.’ That green light comes automatically, apparently because you ride your (moped) bike over a loop with a magnetic field. Oh yes, and it's also questionable whether that button even works: ‘It is true that municipalities often deal with deferred maintenance and then the question is whether a non-functioning button at a traffic light has priority.’
Super. So either that button doesn't work, and if it does, we still don't benefit from it. Well, why don't they just throw those buttons in the trash? Well, the traffic psychologist has a logical answer for that too: ‘They are mainly placebo buttons, meant to give you the feeling that you have control over what happens.’
That's really true, because if it takes too long for it to turn green, I mainly curse at that traffic light and not at magnetic loops in the ground. I could try that too, by the way, but that would cause quite a few noticeable looks.
Source: AD.nl
