| Pedestrian
scramble, also known as the Barnes Dance or exclusive pedestrian phase,
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. In Japan, where over 300
such intersections exist, it is known as a scramble crossing. |
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