It was a dark and cold night. The taxi driver didn’t have even one passenger all day. When he went by the railway station, he saw a young man coming out with two bags in his hands. So he quickly opened the door of the car and asked, “ Where do you want to go, sir?”

“To the Star Hotel,” the young man answered. When the taxi driver heard that, he didn’t feel happy any more. The young man would give him only three dollars because the hotel was not far from the railway station. But suddenly he had an idea. He took the passenger through many streets of the big city.

After a long time, the car arrived at the hotel at last. “You should pay me fifteen dollars,” the car driver said to the young man. “What? Fifteen dollars! Do you think I’m a fool? Only last week, I took a taxi from the railway station to this same hotel and I only gave the driver thirteen dollars. I know how much I have to pay for the trip. I won’t pay you one dollar more than I paid to the other driver last week.

Have you ever pressed the pedestrian button at a crosswalk and wondered if it really worked?   They’re called “placebo(安慰剂）buttons”一buttons that mechanically sound and can be pushed，but provide no functionality.

In New York City, only about 100 of the 1, 000 crosswalk buttons actually function. Crosswalk signals were generally installed before traffic jam had reached today’s levels.

But while their function was taken over by more advanced systems—such as automated lights or traffic sensors — the physical buttons were often kept, rather than being replaced at further expense. Other cities，such as Boston，Dallas and Seattle，have gone through a similar process, leaving them with their own placebo pedestrian buttons. In London, which has 6, 000 traffic signals, pressing the pedestrian button results in a reliable “Wait” light. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the “green man”— or “pedestrian stage” in traffic signal design profession — will appear any sooner.

“We do have some crossings where the green light comes on automatically, but we still ask people to press the button because that enables accessible features,’’ said Glynn Barton, director of network management at Transport for London.

These features, such as blind tracks and hearable traffic signals, help people with visual disorder cross the road and only function when the button is pressed. As for the lights, a growing number of them are now combined and become a part of an electronic system that detects traffic and adjusts time frequency accordingly (giving priority to buses if they’re running late, for example), which means that pressing the button has no effect.

According to Langer, a Harvard psychologist, placebo buttons give us the illusion (错觉)of control — and something to do in situations where the alternative would be doing nothing. In the case of pedestrian crossings, they may even make us safer by forcing us to pay attention to our surroundings. “They serve a psychological purpose at the very least,” she added.

China State Railway Group has recently implemented a new schedule for freight train services between China and Europe, with the aim of ensuring more stable transport times, improving efficiency, and boosting trade between Asia and Europe. The enhanced schedule includes five scheduled weekly freight train services operating along specific routes, enabling accurate determination of transport times between cities. For example, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, a freight train departs from Xi’an, China, to Duisburg, Germany, and returns to Xi’an on Tuesdays. Similarly, on Saturdays, a freight train leaves Chengdu, China, for Lodz, Poland, with the return journey departing every Thursday.

Unlike regular China-Europe freight trains, the new service features fixed carriages, routes, shifts, and set schedules for all sections of the routes, which ensures better control over operation times and improved efficiency. This enhanced schedule has reduced travel time by about 30 percent on average compared to other China-Europe freight trains, providing customers with quicker delivery of goods. Moreover, with fixed schedules and improved efficiency, the new service enhances service quality, ensuring more reliable and timely transportation.

Stable transport times offered by the enhanced schedule support the stability of global industrial and supply chains, facilitating smoother international trade. Looking ahead, China State Railway Group plans to develop more routes with set schedules to further improve the quality of China-Europe freight train services, strengthening the role of freight trains as a reliable alternative to sea and air shipping and supporting the smooth operation of international industrial supply chains.

In conclusion, the enhanced schedule of China-Europe freight trains represents a significant step forward in improving efficiency and reliability in international freight transportation, contributing to the stability and prosperity of global trade.