Barnes dance
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The Barnes Dance is a pedestrian crossing system that stops all traffic and allows pedestrians to cross intersections in every direction at the same time. The Barnes Dance was first used in Kansas City and Vancouver in the late 1940s. Subsequently it was adopted in other cities such as Denver, Baltimore, New York, Montreal, Beverly Hills, and the famous Shibuya crossing in Tokyo.
Although named after Henry Barnes, the system was not invented by him. Barnes, however, was the first to use the system on a large scale. In his autobiography, The Man With the Red and Green Eyes, he writes that the phrase was first coined by a City Hall reporter, John Buchanan.
This type of pedestrian crossing is also known as a scramble light or a pedestrian scramble. In Japan, where over 300 such intersections exist, it is known as a sukuranburu-kōsaten (スクランブル交差点).
In many cities in the Netherlands a similar system is used to allow cyclists to cross busy intersections.
Locations
- Hachiko Square, in Shibuya, Tokyo, has a famous pedestrian scramble at an intersection of seven streets (some pedestrian-only) in front of Shibuya Station.
- In the United States, the city of Beverly Hills is famous for being the first California city to implement diagonal crossing (at some intersections on Rodeo Drive). Pasadena also has pedestrian scrambles in its Old Pasadena shopping and nightlife district, as do certain intersections in San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter.
- In Pittsburgh, there are intersections near a school for the blind which has a pedestrian scramble that also includes audio signals.
- In Trondheim, Norway, nearly all the traffic lights in the centre of the city are pedestrian scrambles.
- The main intersection in downtown Jerusalem, Israel was re-instated as a pedestrian scramble after public protest.
- In Sydney, pedestrian scrambles are commonly used in the CBD, such as the intersections of Park and George Streets, as well as Druitt St & Pitt St.
- They are also in common use throughout New Zealand.
See also
External links
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