Earlier NYT article explicitly supports your point: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/us/placebo-buttons-elevators-crosswalks.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016

Earlier NYT article explicitly supports your point: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/us/placebo-buttons-elevators-crosswalks.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/us/placebo-buttons-elevat... Given that the estimated useful life of an elevator is 25 years, it is likely that most elevators in service today have been modernized or refurbished, rendering the door-close buttons a thing of the past for riders, Ms. Penafiel said. But as The New York Times reported in 2004, the city deactivated most of the pedestrian buttons long ago with the emergence of computer-controlled traffic signals. More than 2,500 of the 3,250 walk buttons that were in place at the time existed as mechanical placebos. Today there are 120 working signals, the city said. About 500 were removed during major construction projects. But it was estimated that it would cost $1 million to dismantle the nonfunctioning mechanisms, so city officials decided to keep them in place. Most of the buttons were scattered throughout the city, mainly outside of Manhattan. They were relics of the 1970s, before computers began choreographing traffic signal patterns on major arteries. But note the bit about dummy thermostats! Depending on where you work, you might find the thermostat in a plastic case under lock and key, but if you’re lucky you might have control over one. Well, you might think you have control. The Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration News reported in 2003 that it asked readers in an informal online survey whether they had ever installed “dummy thermostats.” Of 70 who responded, 51 said they had.