I learn a few things from writing this column. Two weeks
ago I wrote about the unexpectedly nerve-wracking experience of not having a
cellphone on hand after driving over an unknown object on a dark road (see http://bit.ly/WBa6sx). A helpful reader wrote
in to let me know that there's a name for that specific form of anxiety that
strikes when you desperately want to use a mobile phone but can't: It's called nomophobia. It's not a new
term, by any means; it was first defined by Urban Dictionary (www.urbandictionary.com) in March of
2008.
While consulting Urban Dictionary, I stumbled across two
other transportation-related terms that I had not previously known but consider
to be useful additions to my vocabulary:
Placebo button. That's the term for the call
button that is supposed to bring up the pedestrian walk signal but which, in
reality, does nothing at all. In my research of this term, I came across two
explanations for the predominance of placebo buttons at our crosswalks. One is
that traffic engineers put them there on purpose to make pedestrians feel as if
they have some control over how long they have to wait before they can cross
the street. The other is that the placebo button, back when it was installed,
did indeed affect the timing of the walk signal, but that after intersection
signals were upgraded to allow the timing to be programmed by computer (which
took place in the 1980s, 90s, and 00s), the formerly useful button lost its
purpose -- unless, of course, you consider its psychological function of
ameliorating the pedestrian's sense of powerlessness in the face of speeding
cars. (The proof that most pedestrian call buttons are placebos is found in
this ABC News report from May 2010: http://abcn.ws/aeeZTW. There's some valuable historical background
on the placebo button in this New York Times report of February 27, 2004: http://nyti.ms/r84w4.)
Speaking of things that don't work: There's the
passenger brake. That's the imaginary pedal on the floor that the
passenger presses when he or she most fervently wishes the driver would slow
down or come to a stop. Some passengers try to be surreptitious as they press
foot to the floor, preferring the driver to remain unaware that his or her
tailgating or pinball style of driving is causing an involuntary braking action
over on the passenger side. Other passengers brake with an exaggerated pounding
stomp, while also supplying a verbal critique: for example, "Yiiiy - you
almost hit that guy!" or "If you were any closer to that taxi, I'd be
in the back seat." But, much like the placebo button, the passenger brake
rarely has any practical impact. By that I mean, it does not prevent actual
impact. The effect that it does have tends to be projected into future trips,
rather than on the motion of the car in the present. That is to say, the driver
decides never to offer a ride to the passenger-brake user again. Or the
converse: The passenger decides never again to get in a car with a driver who
induces the need to use the passenger brake.
---
Still Life With Robin is published on the Cleveland Park
Listserv, www.cleveland-park.com,
and on All Life Is Local, on Saturdays.
No comments:
Post a Comment