5 ms·

It's probably more expensive than just snipping the wires.

• kgermino 16y ago
  Why would they even bother to do that? Just deactivate the buttons in software.
  • eli 16y ago
    I don't think those buttons were driven by anything we would consider "software."
    • kgermino 16y ago
      Do you mind explaining? I can't tell if this is meant as a joke or a serious counter-argument. At any rate I assume there is some sort of firmware controlling the lights [edit: guess not, read juson's comment below], monitoring the buttons/ induction loops, etc. and the easiest way (to my mind) to disable to buttons would be to disable them in this software and have the system stop monitoring them. However if you have any insight into how the lights work that would be great.
      • Judson 16y ago
        hey kgermino, Sorry to butt into the convo, but I was a summer intern at a major "traffic light" operation (for lack of a better term) in the southeast (aka, they did all of the traffic lights and systems for the southeast USA). It will seem almost shocking to many here on HN, but the traffic control industry is lagging behind drastically. I believe the newer systems started going IP based just a few years ago, and (gasp) wireless networking of traffic lights is a really new thing. It has to do with the environment the system must handle and how "tamper-proof" it must be, which leads to hardware and software being waaayy behind the curve. The main point though, is that it would be very reasonable to think that some hardware, especially if installed before the 90s, wouldn't have "software" to just "turn off monitoring". Even the newer boxes aren't completely controlled by software, they have physical circuitry that operates as a "fall-back" to make sure that things like two green lights on adjacent roads can't be green at the same time, even if the software was hacked, had a bug, etc.
        • kgermino 16y ago
          Interesting. For whatever reason it didn't even occur to me that traffic lights would still have a "hard-wired" circuit available to operate the lights. I'm a Computer/Electrical but I tend to think in terms of coding rather than being able to solve problems with circuits. But that's interesting and makes me think I should look into an internship/coop in that area. Thanks
        • gecko 16y ago
          Even moreso than that, many of the lights in New York still run on genuine relays. You can easily hear them at many street corners in Manhattan, happily thunking away. (The New York Subway is also still powered almost exclusively by relays, even to do complex things like monitor train speed. It's both impressive and disturbing to see what they were able to accomplish a hundred years ago without modern computing hardware.)
          • lepht 16y ago
            Any recommended links on where one could read more on the NY Subway systems you mention? I'm fascinated by pre-electronic computing, and this sounds like a particularly interesting example.
• jessriedel 16y ago
  It's still insulting.
  • kgermino 16y ago
    I'd be far more insulted if the city spent $2 million [Made up Number] it doesn't have removing buttons that did no harm to anyone.
    • InclinedPlane 16y ago
      Why not spend almost nothing to put some sort of notice on the button that it's no longer useful?
      • kgermino 16y ago
        "almost nothing" would still equate to sever thousand dollars, probably over $100k. Not to mention future costs, a sticker would probably need to be replaced after a year at most, and a sign would cost significantly more. If you decide to just put them up and let them be there's a high likelihood of vandalism or damage that isn't attractive. All for signs that many people probably wouldn't notice. Again it just doesn't seem that letting people know the buttons do nothing is worth the money that it costs.
    • jquery 16y ago
      The buttons are almost certainly a disease vector. I'd hardly say they aren't causing harm.