A pedestrian scramble, also known as an 'X' Crossing (UK), diagonal crossing (US), scramble intersection (Canada), and, more poetically, a Barnes Dance, is a pedestrian crossing system that stops all vehicular traffic and allows pedestrians to cross an intersection in every direction, including diagonally, at the same time.
It was first used in Canada and the United States in the late 1940s, and though it has since fallen out of favour with traffic engineers in the United States, as it prioritises flow of pedestrians over flow of car traffic. The benefits in terms of pedestrian amenity and safety have led to new examples being installed in many countries in recent years.
One of the most famous and most heavily used intersections of this kind is in Shibuya, Tokyo.
Read more about Pedestrian Scramble: Development, Advantages and Disadvantages
Famous quotes containing the words pedestrian and/or scramble:
“However global I strove to become in my thinking over the past twenty years, my sons kept me rooted to an utterly pedestrian view, intimately involved with the most inspiring and fractious passages in human development. However unconsciously by now, motherhood informs every thought I have, influencing everything I do. More than any other part of my life, being a mother taught me what it means to be human.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
“Stevenson had noble ideas—as did the young Franklin for that matter. But Stevenson felt that the way to implement them was to present himself as a thoughtful idealist and wait for the world to flock to him. He considered it below him, or wrong, to scramble out among the people and ask them what they wanted. Roosevelt grappled voters to him. Stevenson shied off from them. Some thought him too pure to desire power, though he showed ambition when it mattered.”
—Garry Wills, U.S. historian. Certain Trumpets: The Call of Leaders, ch. 9, Simon & Schuster (1994)