A pedestrian scramble (or exclusive pedestrian interval, or pedestrian jubilee) 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. In Canada and the United States, the pedestrian scramble was first used in the late 1940s but fell out of favor with traffic engineers due to increased delays for pedestrians and drivers. Its benefits for pedestrian flow and safety have led to new examples being installed in many countries in recent years, including the world's busiest pedestrian intersection at Shibuya, Tokyo which began operation in 1973. Names for the crossings in specific countries include scramble intersection, scramble crossings and scramble corner (Canada), 'X' Crossing (UK), diagonal crossing and Barnes Dance (US), and scramble crossing (スクランブル交差点, sukuranburu-kōsaten) (Japan).
Development
The name "Barnes Dance" commemorates traffic engineer Henry Barnes while alluding to a barn dance. 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 in the late 1940s. Around that time, the pedestrian scramble was being tested separately in Kansas City and Vancouver. Barnes later brought it to Baltimore and New York City. When he 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. After the success of the first scramble, Barnes began adding more scrambles across the city, at Wall Street; 42nd Street at Fifth Avenue and at Madison Avenue; and in Brooklyn. In his autobiography The Man With the Red and Green Eyes (1965), Barnes recalled that a City Hall reporter, John Buchanan, coined a phrase (dancing in the streets) writing that "Barnes has made the people so happy they're dancing in the streets." Barnes said later, "As things stood now, a downtown shopper needed a four-leaf clover, a voodoo charm, and a St. Christopher's medal to make it in one piece from one curbstone to the other. As far as I was concerned—a traffic engineer with Methodist leanings—I didn't think that the Almighty should be bothered with problems which we, ourselves, were capable of solving." However, the Barnes Dance—officially known as an "exclusive pedestrian interval" because vehicular traffic is stopped in all directions during a pedestrian scramble—caused gridlock in some cities where it was implemented such as New York City, where congestion increased due to longer wait times for lights. Robert Moses disliked the scrambles because they held up traffic. In locations like Washington, D.C., pedestrian scrambles shorten the time allotted to each traffic-signal phase by one-third. One study of exclusive pedestrian intervals in Greenwich, Connecticut, found that it offered no extra benefits compared to a "concurrent pedestrian interval" where pedestrians cross when parallel traffic has the green light. In the United States, the 2009 Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices allows pedestrian scrambles.
Application
In Australia In Adelaide, there are scrambles at either end of Rundle Mall, King William Street, another on Pulteney Street, and one at the intersection of King William Street, Waymouth Street and Pirie Street. In Brisbane, there are two noteworthy scrambles: one in the central business district at the intersection of Adelaide and Edward streets, adjacent to the Queen Street Mall, and a second at the intersection of Vulture and Boundary streets in the suburb of West End. In Darwin, there is a pedestrian scramble at the CBD end of the Smith Street Mall. In Melbourne, there is a pedestrian scramble at the intersection of Flinders and Elizabeth streets, at the Elizabeth Street entrance to Flinders Street railway station, allowing pedestrians to walk directly to the station and the island tram platforms in the middle of both streets. Since 2019, there has been a four-way scramble at the intersection of Wellington Street and Charles Street in Kew, due to school pedestrian traffic through the intersection. Another exists at the intersection of Mount Alexander Road and Wellington Street in Ascot Vale. A fourth scramble is at the intersection of Irving and Leeds streets, Footscray, next to Footscray railway station. In Albury, there is a long-standing four-way scramble at the busiest CBD intersection, Dean Street and Kiewa Street. In Perth, pedestrian scrambles are mostly found in the CBD shopping area, at the intersections between two of Barrack, Hay, Murray and William streets. They are also found at the CBD intersections of St Georges Terrace, Mount and Milligan streets, and where St Georges Terrace becomes Adelaide Terrace at Victoria Avenue. The inner suburb of Mount Lawley has one where Beaufort Street intersects Walcott Street, and there is one in Leederville, at the intersection of Oxford and Vincent streets. In Sydney, there are numerous examples of scramble crossings in built-up commercial and CBD areas, such as the intersection of George and Druitt streets, with one of the corner blocks being the Sydney Town Hall, at Oxford Street and Bourke Street in Darlinghurst, at Church Street in Parramatta, and in Penrith and Fairfield central business districts.
In Belgium Pedestrian scrambles are planned to be legally introduced in autumn 2025.
In Canada
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