Pedestrian scramble

A pedestrian scramble, also known as scramble intersection (Canada), 'X' Crossing (UK), diagonal crossing (US), exclusive pedestrian interval, and more poetically a Barnes Dance, is a type of traffic signal movement that temporarily stops all vehicular traffic, thereby allowing 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, but it later fell out of favour with traffic engineers in Canada and United States, as it was seen as prioritizing flow of pedestrians over flow of car traffic. However, it prioritizes pedestrians over vehicles only during a portion of the traffic control cycle, but it prioritizing vehicles over pedestrians for the remainder of the cycle. Its benefits for pedestrian amenity and safety have led to new examples being installed in many countries in recent years.

The name "Barnes Dance" commemorates traffic engineer Henry Barnes. While he did not claim to have invented it himself, Barnes was a strong advocate of it, having observed the difficulties his daughter experienced on her way to school. He first introduced it in his home city of Denver, Colorado in the late 1940s. Around this time, the pedestrian scramble was being tested separately in Kansas City and Vancouver. Barnes later brought it to Baltimore and New York City. When Barnes became traffic commissioner of New York City in 1962, his first action was to look for intersections to implement pedestrian scrambles. The first pedestrian scramble was installed ten days after he took office at the intersection of Vanderbilt Avenue and 42nd Street, to great acclaim. Following the success of this first scramble, Barnes began adding more scrambles across the city, at Wall Street; 42nd Street at Fifth Avenue and at Madison Avenue; and Brooklyn.

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