The signs to the castle would be a good thing for visually impaired people who wouldn’t be able to see the castle at a distance. I wouldn’t say they are useless.

those brown signs do not point to the castle, they are street signs that help you to navigate towards the castle. You are not a pigeon, so it is useless to know just the general direction and fly there. If you follow the signs you will get to the castle, by foot. You would be surprised how hard it is, to find the way towards something if you are not local.

To the pedestrian lamp button - there were some researches where it was proven that pedestrians will wait for the green light more patiently when there is a button to call the green. Whether if it changes the waiting time or not. To the tram bellows - they wear out quicker when they are leaned onto. And there ia a risk of falling out when it rips. To the metro doors - they are operated by compressed air, so in a system malfunction or an accident they might open without notice. And then you fall out. To the mayors billboard - at least they are not in the basement like in the book Douglas Adams: Hichikers guide to the galaxy. :)

fun fact about those push buttons is, that depending on the time of day they actually do something. in the evening or in the middle of the night, where traffic is not high or it's unexpec that big amounts of traffic would be disturbed, they actually can flip the lights immediately source: I tested it on different hours of the day and night on multiple traffic lights-even at 2 am

As far as I know, those pedestrian light buttons exist mainly for the night hours. In Zagreb for example, nighttime traffic light regulation favors cars and when pressed, lights almost momentarily turn green for pedestrians. It also beeps in order to signal blind people whether it is safe to walk or not :)

Re: leaning on the metro door or that "bellows" or "accordion" (not "harmonica" - in English that's the small instrument you hold to your mouth): the former might open, because of a malfunction of the control mechanism or the door themselves, while the train is in motion; the latter might simply tear or pinch you. The likelihood of either is very low, but the operators want to avoid liability in a very unlikely event that somebody gets hurt. So, go on leaning (I do), but we are doing that at our own risk. Re that "redundant" arrow pointing to the Castle: come on, Janek, you can do better than that. All those brown signs have a standardized design that includes an icon, image or pictogram, text (usually in several languages) and _arrow._ So what if the direction is obvious - does that arrow hurt your eyes? Re advertising space on screens in metro passage unsold for _four years_ - now, that is totally weird. Perhaps that company should rethink their pricing strategy. Re: empty sightseeing bus: I bet that is one of those "hop on, hop off" "lines" that have fixed, advertised schedule. Trams go on schedule even it there is nobody at their first station Re: those screens on the city hall - having too many of them is better than having none, and I guess they display the same content as their web page. They were probably put up some years ago, when not everyone had a smartphone with a browser. You know, transparency and all that. Now, that "solutions" for the broken public toilet and benches staring at a vendor's shack are just hilarious. That fake "let me cross" button does serve a purpose: when you press it, it _seems_ that you were waiting less. Both pedestrian and cat traffic it probably intensive enough at all times of day and night that _actual_ measurement and reaction to induction loops and buttons would serve very little purpose.

Your videos are the best advertisement for Prague possible like if there’s any European city I’d go to it’d be Prague simply because of your videos

The "useless" button for the crosswalk is actually not useless because studies show that it makes the pedestrian feel better. The belief that it is doing something is is the purpose it self. It makes people happy to press buttons. A lot of these kinds of buttons are around the world

the city hall with the information available is a good thing. ‘sunshine is the best disinfectant’ is something we say in the US to indicated that transparency in our government fights corruption

Janek, I asked a Traffic Engineer here in Warszawa and the crosswalk buttons do work, but only outside of rush hours.

Regarding the Charles Bridge, it's very common to disable the stop light botton on crosswalks in city centers due to traffic control. If the button would work, it would greatly reduce the amount of traffic being able to go through. They often just leave the botton there as it gives the pedestrian a sense of control and lessens the likelyhood of them just walking over on red :)

5:00 -- I'm sorry, Janek, I must disagree. Those signs are not there to prevent you from leaning on the folding bellows or the doors. It is to prevent you from suing the city if you manage to hurt yourself while do so. Without those signs, you could argue that the city was negligent; with them, the city can say, "Well, we told you not to do that." This is also why there are so many safety stickers on ladders.

I think the castle sign is not so much to identify it but "this way to the castle." I used to live in Istanbul and we'd ask "can you get to (place) from here?" Oh sure we could, but one time we had to follow this little narrow path, up a 200 year old stairway made of stones and up onto a freeway to cross. Another time we had to go down a back alley where merchants dumped their rotten vegetables. There were more accommodating routes to those places but we had to find them for ourselves. So you could SEE Galata tower from where we were but it was a smelly walk of dodging rotting produce.

Hilarious ! This video made me a tiny bit nostalgic about Absurdistán, which is how I express love for the country of my origin. There was an article some years ago in a local magazine where I live, about a Canadian couple visiting Czech Republic. He was doing some business, she was an avid reader and Franz Kafka was one of her favourite writers. After about a week in Prague, she proclaimed “I always thought Kafka was a genius, but he was just a keen observer of reality”. Honzo, jako obvykle, velice zajímavé a zábavné!

2:15 Funnily enough, those thing DO have a use. In general people tend to be more likely to wait for a longer time, if you give them some perceived agency over the situation. Meaning they press a "useless" button and then are less likely to just 'walk real quick' over a red light, possibly disturbing traffic or worse. Easy to set up, not a great impact, but in big numbers the statistics make a difference.

I actually kind of like the screens you showed last. Though I agree, that it is a waste of money to have five of them, I think it is very cool, that your government has to be so transparent with everything. =)

As an American, truly public bathrooms fascinate me. Here, you have to find a store with one.

2:15 These buttons are usually useful only during nighttime. During the day, the crosswalk and the road are very busy so it is kept timed. During the night, the crosswalks are less busy, so you'd let the cars pass by default, and stop them when a pedestrian requests it.

If you lean on the train doors inside the train and fall asleep, you may seriously hurt yourself, after it stops and open these doors. In Poland nobody does that (lean on the train door inside) and look how close are we, culturally :D

Well, on a foggy day you can't see the castle!

The "do not lean" sign in the subway is here for many reasons. 1) Safety - to not fall of when doors open at the station, or when somebody uses emergency opening while train is moving 2) Maintenance - when leaning, you're pushing doors way they dont like it - they're supposed to move on the side of the train, not be pushed/pulled from side, leaning makes much more tension to the door mechanism, also could make sensors think that the doors are open and show it to the train operator.

have you tried calling the advert company and seeing how much they want for the metro boards?

If you want us to be fluent in Czech, it might help to have the lesson at the beginning. Then, when we see the word throughout the video, or you might use the word a few times within the video, we will have reinforcement of what we just heard and saw. If we hear and see it multiple times, it would help more than when it's a last-minute mention. It was only you saying "fluent by now" that made me think that the shifting of it to the start could help out more. People learn through repetition and encountering language in context (visually, the situations, etc.) I like to learn languages, but haven't retained most words you've mentioned at the end of your videos. I'd have to double-check (or double-Czech) old videos to learn the words all over again. But repetition in contextual situations should help.

5:01 The signage is there and in other cities' metros to prevent possible accidents when the door opens and the passenger leaning against it does not expect it.

The other annoying thing about getting to the Castle is tourists think that Hradcanska Metro stop is right outside the castle at the the top of the hill - they even have a graphic of the castle on the Metro map for it. When you get off the metro though it looks like you are in the middle of nowhere because you have to cross the road and walk through the rear of some buildings to get to the street behind the castle that you need to be on.

About the traffic stop button, did you test it during the night hours? Those buttons often do not change the behaviour of the traffic lights during the rush hours. However, their main goal is to instantly change the lights in the night hours when there is no incoming car traffic detected. So that when there is absolutely no traffic in the night, you don't have to wait those 55 seconds.

The purpose of that sign is to teach you the meaning of 'Prague Castle' in Czech and German

"Do not lean on the doors" in the metro is actually important, as in some stations the other set of doors opens (e.g. Hlavni nadrazi), therefore you can fall back if you don''t notice it

I love the distinction about smoking vs navigation. Also the humor, nice throw backs

I am in Prague right now because of your videos and I'm loving every single minute of it!

Almost all of these seem useful as a person who has never been to Prague. Some r useless yes. But as a tourist some of these things are useful and I see myself using if I ever visit.

Metro door text is probably legal obligation, in case someone leans on a door that opens and they fall. It tells the passenger not to do it therefore they cannot sue, or something like that.

Where I live the crosswalk buttons do not make the walk light come faster either but they do extend how much time you have to cross the street.

The bendy bit of the tram is only there to protect the interior from weather. While they may have made it with safety factors, they do not take responsibility if it's slightly damaged, you fall through, and you get sliced beneath the wheels. Same thing with the doors. Sometimes something break, so that the doors can be opened with just a push (or by the body weight of someone leaning on them).

I think those information screens at the city hall are really cool if they work properly or if they have a search function. For example: Years ago, I saw at our local court that they have a lot of boards behind glass, where they put out writings to people they want to reach for anything but they don't have the current adress, but by law they have to give out certain informations. So if you homeless for example you can go to there and watch at the board if there is a document for you. If you found one, you can read it or go to the office and ask for a personal copy. But you have to work along all the glass frames to look if there is something for you. If they had such an information system where you maybe could search by your name or a topic you could find informations much quicker and they did not had to print out all the letters and pin them at the boards.

I love your videos. Best videos on a single city in the world! You deserve an award. This one made me laugh so much.

About the pedestrian cross walk, the button is indeed not doing anything during day, but is useful during night (when the light switch is not automatic). So there’s actually a point to put buttons even on the most used crosswalks

Amazing how you are actually helping change your city for the better. I will visit Prague in around a month. I used to watch your videos for entertainment, but now they are actually getting useful. Thank you!!

Regarding Trams: You might target the one building the tram (like siemens) not the city ordering it… they usually forbid to lean agains these things as they are moving parts and by folding/opening you can press bodyparts. Only because an engineer made it highly unlikely something happens, doesn‘t mean its sage to do.

About those "useless" buttons on traffic lights, there's a point to that. A few years ago there was an accident on a pedestrian crossing with traffic lights in a city here in Spain. A car crashed into two pedestrians and, long story short, there was a trial. A policeman who got to the scene was called as a witness. He was asked if there was some kind of record or something so they could know whether the pedestrians had pressed or not the button. His answer was... a bit of surprise: he said that not only that information couldn't be known, as there was no record of whether people pressed or not the button, but also pressing the button was pointless. It turns out it's some kind of placebo effect. Some of those buttons are installed but they don't work or, otherwise, the traffic nearby could be affected. That is, they have the area traffic lights programmed in a way that traffic would go smoothly (...hopefully) and if pedestrians were to affect those traffic lights, it could turn into a mess. Mind you, if they're not going to work, why installing them there in the first place? but that's maybe poor planification or who knows. And, also, maybe we've all seen these buttons at traffic lights that, if you press them once, they actually work and change colors, but they don't work if you press them again "too soon" after cars have started moving again.

I am not sure how common fog is in Prague. If there is some, one might not be able to see the castle from afar.

I do think the No Smoking signs are important. It's funny now until someone does smoke and the fire alarm goes off and the whole station needs to be evacuated for hours. Disrupting thousands of people their travel schedule.

That “harmonica” in the middle of the bus, is an accordion. 😂

Regarding public information screens on the city hall building: I'd suggest reading Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; it explains why they need it on the first few pages.

in my area of the US the pedestrian button does actually do something, if you are on a crosswalk during a non standard time of day its never going to change if there arent any cars or other pedestrians going through that area, so it only changes if you press the button, it may be programmed that way in prague too but if its the busiest intersection there is, maybe it never comes into play

1:06 could be returning from somewhere without passangers i mean its still a bus you can ride, tourist or not i guess 2:39 could be for blind people so they get an accoustic signal 3:45 fog 3:54 its for safety, tram makes a turn and harmonica part can squish something so its not useless either 5:10 yes, something can happen to you, thats why it says not to lean against it, be heavy and you might break the doors, they are not built for pressure but to open and close fast and many times over reliably 9:09 its a computer... just because you looked up this specific piece of info doesnt mean its there for exactly and just this purpose

The button on the pedestrian light is there to make the green phase for crossing the street longer. The green phase does not start quicker, it just allows the pedestrians more time to cross the street. At least that is the case where I live. ;)

It's been over twenty years since I last visited Prague, would love to go back. It really is a beautiful city and a wonderful place to visit.

Just by seeing the title, I can say it took 'em a while 😁

I have been telling the government officials every day I walk past this useless building called "Town Hall" where a lot of people seem to be doing nothing inside of and they should get rid of it. They haven't gotten around to it yet.

Coming to Prague tomorrow for 2nd time in life just because of your awesome videos :D

Regarding that crosswalk button, I believe it works by making the light stay Red longer after it eventually changes, to give people more time to cross the road when the button is pressed, not making it change quicker for you when pressing the button. I could be wrong though

info panels are required by law, so that general public is informed of what the city does. Freedom of information. Just because the public does not give a damn about the city does not mean that city can do it without the means of scrutinizing. Why the hell are there 5 of these, i have no idea. Probably, the cousin of someone was installing them and said that if they buy 5, she/he will give them a better price.

Most of those buttons at crosswalks don't work except at certain times of day , usually at night, where lights are traffic controlled and default green in one direction.

The word Reklama is very similar to the word for advertising used in dutch: reclame (and a lot of other countries/languages have a very similar or even the same word) It is from Latin origin and has spread to lots of germanic and slavic languages. It's strange that english doesn't use this word.

Believe me, the 8 no smoking signs are more necessary than you think, some smokers think that the sign is only applicable to a small area around the sign. Put one no smoking sign in one corner of the room, they just go smoke in the other corner. Put a sign in that corner, they just go to the other 2 corners.

The Tram thing: I think its because of legal reasons: if someone gets hurt: the city told them not to lean there so they can not be sued.

about traffic light button for pedestrians in other countries. Many of them do nothing during the day where priority is to keep car traffic at the "normal" rate. But they act during night or evening. Some of them literally make a green light to blink indicated it will turn red in order for pedestrian crossing go green.

3:38 Never underestimate the stupidity of tourists. There will literally be people standing at the entrance to the castle and asking a guide where the castle was. It happens in London as well.

As a Tram Driver i can assure you that these stickers are necessary, to safe the Tram Company for prosecutions made by People who hurt themselves because they lean on the binding Parts. And i can imagine the same is with the dors, or it is there because of light sensors, that check if there is a person in the door area

The traffic button does serve a purpose. People on average wait longer for a red light if there is a button. So it prevents people from crossing the road illegally.

When someone is asking about how Czech culture looks like and what it means when you say "švejkism," just show him this video, these things are the best example of a real Czech culture, like solve the problem by paper with "NOT WORKING!!!" is the most Czech thing ever. BTW, even Police is leaning on the door in metro. 😀

In regards to pedestrian crossings, when I worked in traffic management many of those buttons that turn on a light telling you to wait are called placebo buttons as they do nothing but tell you to wait.

The function of the pedestrian button changes based on the time of day and traffic. During the day it may be there unnecessarily, but at night it keeps the red for cars and the green for pedestrians from jumping when there are none. But maybe it would be worth hiring a person who always mounts them in the evening and takes them off in the morning. Or during rush hour. Each intersection for different intervals and different settings! And finally, a word for this week: RANT.

I'd be willing to bet that advertisement space charges INSANE amounts to advertise, so no one wants it. And they refuse to budge on the prices. That happens a ton in New York. Especially around renting spaces. People would rather their property be unused and run-down that find a tenant by charging less to rent. It's absurd.

I went to Prague many years ago. Loved it. Your videos are drawing me back. The "No leaning" signs in the articulated bellows and on the doors are there to prevent liability. If someone tries to sue because they somehow got pinched by the belllows, or because the doors fell open, the Line can point to the sign to show they were doing something expressly forbidden. Mystery solved.

This guy is great -- wish there were more "honest guides" in other world cities. Maybe start a franchise system?

The public records machines at city hall are probably not that expensive, and they at least in principle make public records available to anyone tall enough to press the buttons and literate enough to read the records; I think that's probably a good thing even if actual use of them is minimal.

3:58 In English the word for the musical instrument shaped like that is Accordion not Harmonica 😉

I was last week in Prague... Your videos helped me a lot

The crosswalk buttons here in DC makes a sound when clicked and when the light turns green it beeps faster to tell visually impaired people that the light is green

Maybe you should put an advertisement on those screens on the metro with a QR code directing to this video with the appropriate time stamp! 🤣😂

The pedestrian crossing buttons not function is common accross most large cities around the world, at least during busier hours. A lot are functional for a few hours in the early AM e.g. 2 to5 am. Other than that, it makes people feel good to have the allusion of control

Looking forward to visit Prague this coming summer, With love coming from Seattle Wa. Thanks for all your help!

5:30 that's actually very surprising, with the foot traffic there you thought those ad screens would been filled, i wonder if they are charging insanely to ad there lol

Believe it or not, this is part of the charm of Prague...if it was America there would be a lawyer in every crosswalk. I've been studying czech 25 years and I suck... you sound so good speaking it

My understanding of crosswalks isn't that the button is there to allow people to walk but that it's there to extend the walk sign longer as well. Have you tried timing how long the walk sign stays up from when the button is pushed vs not pushed?

Video idea: rent the advertisement space in the metro for one month and promote your channel there

As a Liveleak consumer i must add. DO NOT LEAN ON THE DOOR OR THAT ACRODIAN THING

The stickers on the harmonica is there for the legal reasons. If someone is to get hurt by standing there, the city is not liable because it clearly said it was not allowed. Same for the metro. Yes, something can happen to you which is falling out when the doors open...

As someone who has been living in the Czech Republic for the past 16 years and has noticed the poor airflow in new trams, I would like to make a suggestion. While the new trams were not designed to have windows open for ventilation, they were built to be used with air conditioning, which unfortunately many of the new trams lack. As a result, during the summer months, the interior temperature can be higher than the exterior, causing discomfort and even sickness for some passengers. My request is that if the authorities continue to acquire trams with decreased airflow compared to the old models, then it is imperative that ALL of them are equipped with air conditioning and that drivers are instructed to turn them on. I've been in so many buses and trams where the driver has his private window open, a fan pointed at them and leave the AC off for the bus/tram. However, this does not mean that the air conditioning should be used excessively, as it is commonly done in the US, where the temperature is set to the lowest possible degree. I believe that many other passengers would also appreciate this improvement, and I hope that you can help influence this change.

HONEST GUIDE: 2:16 - The walk button is not there to make the wait shorter for the green light. It is there to tell the traffic control device "brain" that there is a pedestrian waiting to cross, and to make the green light last longer, so that they have the time to get across the street. And in cases where it does not affect the timing, it simply activates the WALK / DON'T WALK light so that pedestrians will know when it is safe to cross, and when the red light is about to appear, so they can make their way across before it does. Nowhere in the world do crossing buttons make the wait for a green light shorter.

here in Australia, those buttons are not uselss for crosswalks, means when theres no much foot traffic (nighttime) its green for cars and only change when someone presses the button to crosss the road, (also good for visually impaired with sounds) so maybe the same there.

I work at the Budapest Transportation Center (BKK) and in Budapest, we have somewhat similar trams. Many of my colleagues actually drive trams and sometimes they tell about passengers who lean into the 'accordion' and get their laptops bent in their bags. Also, it is just more practical to have that shape (every low-floor tram does everywhere) because while you need to get tubes and cables done (next to your feet), you need to make space for people to squeeze around each other when they want to go from one section to another. One more thing, we have many of those 'useless' beg buttons in Budapest too. During the day it works as there was no beg button, because, say, cars/trams have a detector circuit built into the pavement of the road and they 'operate' the crossing in peak hour, or for the busiest hours of the day the intersection is coordinated with other intersections around anyway, so you don't have to push the button, the light changes as according to traffic control plans.

The advertisement thing in the metro station is REALLY suspicious. Something is going on there. The folding bellows in the tram, leaning on metro doors and the respective signs is something that happens everywhere, I think.

In Canada we call the place not to sit on the tram a Accordion cause we’ll it looks like Accordion, another great Video,thanks

Curious... In Portugal we used to say (Reclame), only the E changes, but thos word is not used by youngsters anymore

Dude, i follow your channel for a while now. First, great great content. Your editing work, the knowledge of the city! But your scammer videos are so funny. I always wanted to visit praha❤ but now i am going to!

Those green light buttons are like this everywhere. The idea is not to turn green whenever you want, but to keep people waiting instead of passing on red

The metro door thing, it's probably because there is a door closed interlock on the doors. If you lean on them and you accidentally open the contacts on the interlock switch, it will cut traction and apply the brakes (because a door is "open"). Holds the metro up.

3:04 I don't think it is pointless, if I were in Prague, without the sign I wouldn't know that the building in front of me is Prague castle! so I think the it is not meant to tell you where the castle is rather what that building is!

I really love seeing these changes after beeing there a few years ago and actually seeing some of them. Amazing!

Don't know where Prague is, don't really care. That said your city looks very clean and very nice to live in. As for leaning against a subway door, if you ever come to America please don't do that. You see, at least where I live in America, we don't worry about terroristic attacks, the bridges fall down by themselves from lack of maintenance and inspections. Don't even get me started on the dam failures across the country each year. Please don't bet your life on the subway door remaining closed while the train is in motion. Your city does look really nice and a safe and healthy place to live. I apologize for not actually knowing where Prague is, John from Philly.

where i currently live the button for green light works only when there is no traffic, if there is traffic, the button will prioritize the cars to not make a traffic jam, i recommend you try at night when there are no cars and people, maybe the result will diffrent

I think the warning on the trams and trains is a legal disclaimer so that if anything happens when you lean on the harmonicas or doors, the transportation companies will not be held responsible for your mishaps. Imagine someone leaning on the door of a train and it was faulty and open mid journey, if there's no warning, there will be a court case suing the train co. for not having ample warning.

Pedestrian crossing buttons: These tend to be a placebo in many cases just to give the impression that people have somewhat control over their crossing. I know that in my own city (Utrecht, the Netherlands) about 45% is just there for show as the lights either work with a pattern or with detection loops in the road. If you happen to have a green light app on your phone you know quick enough which lights are interactive and which not as the green light app actually will give you a quicker (often instant if possible) green light when you approach one. The one you showed clearly works on a pattern.

I love how so many of these are the equivalent of that doctor joke: "Doctor, Doctor, it hurts when I do this." "Well don't do that." Edit: a few of these things are anti-lawsuit instances, like the subway door or bus stickers. Same reason they have to put stickers like "don't stick this power drill up your bum" on things, 'cause somebody did (or will do) it then try to sue saying there was nothing telling them not to.

The smoking signs were probably necessary as the Czech republic was the last to implement the indoor smoking ban in 2017. Looking at the data in 2020, 30.7% out of a population of 10,708,981 in the Czech republic were smokers, meaning over a quarter of the population would likely have benefitted from the reminder. *This data excludes smokeless tobacco use*

The bellows warning in the trams is there because someone probably got pinched in the past, and some of the bends (going up to the castle if I remember correctly) could get you hurt if you got caught.

Public toilet is still not working? Holy shit!