I'm not aware of any that are placebo's here. The least they will do is extend the walk signal and length of time for you to cross - they aren't going to change the light.
Some busy urban centers have automatic crosswalks, that might be where the "placebo effect" is coming into play.
Also, image (olde, repost I think - can't remember where I got it - also humongous)
Spoiler: show
i always figured that what the buttons did was insert a pedestrian stage into the lights's next sequence. that's how I'd do it.
Hard to argue with most of that diagram, but they couldn't find a place for David Weber in the Sci-Fi section? What the heck.
The ones around here generally work perfectly. They are lit only when the light is green (and not the left-turn arrows) and when they're lit, they count down starting at like 30 or 20 so you know exactly how much time you have to get across the street before the light turns yellow, and even then you have a few more seconds while the lights turn red and the opposing traffic's green activates. They're pretty much automatic and really don't require input unless you're just impatient.
Only in places where the switches have been rendered obsolete by other implementations. One of the worst offenders in this regard is New York City, but it doesn't apply to every intersection, nor is every affected switch necessarily inactive 24/7 365. Southern California—especially its more up-to-date intersections—has buttons that not only work normally, but do so instantly if there's no traffic.
Sci-fi should just link to the row of four books towards the right side, after the 'Who should we fight?' node.
Fucking read them. All of them.
Glad to know Piers is only remembered for his Xanth puns and not his better series like Space Tyrant, Blue Adapt, Mute, Ox/Orn, Tarot, or even Incarnations. Fuck that list.
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Black people? Nah, thats a full fledged nigga right there.