i don't know if this was ever posted here
City of Vancouver considers 'scramble'-style pedestrian crossings
Cassidy Olivier, The Province
Published: Wednesday, September 03, 2008
It's known as the scramble, the Barnes Dance and the exclusive pedestrian phase.
And it could be coming to Vancouver.
Simply defined, the scramble happens when motorized traffic is stopped at an intersection and pedestrians are allowed to cross in whatever direction they choose. Yes, even diagonally.
A favorite in Tokyo, Japan, the pedestrian dance became all the rage last week in Toronto when the city unveiled its first "scramble" at the intersection of Yonge and Dundas Streets. If successful, the Yonge-Dundas scramble is expected to pave the way for additional scrambles throughout the city.
Not to be outdone, engineers at the City of Vancouver are looking into the possibility of installing similar traffic stops in the downtown core.
But as Lon LaClaire, manager of strategic transportation planning for the City of Vancouver, explained, there is a lot more to a Barnes Dance (named after American traffic engineer Henry A. Barnes) than just striking up the band and handing out invitations.
It would be tough to determine the pros and cons of installing scrambles throughout the city, as the benefits or pitfalls would be dependent on each situation, said LaClaire.
The cost of putting in a scramble would run about $50,000 to $100,000 per location, he said.
So for now, city engineers will wait and see how the Toronto experiment fares before any decision are made.
"It is hard for us to think of a location where this would be an overall improvement, all things considered," he said.
"There is probably only a handful of circumstances that this would make sense."
http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/n...5-174ba0d1d44c