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 (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
Vancouver was one of the first cities worldwide to use the concept at individual locations.
Saskatoon had scramble crossings starting in the 1960s, along 21st Street at 2nd Avenue, 3rd Avenue, 1st Avenue, and College Drive. In spring of 1986, the last of them were abolished. "After 55 years, concrete barrier in downtown Saskatoon faces removal", CBC Feb. 12, 2026 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/saskatoon-downtown-parking-traffic-shopping-transit-mall-9.7083278
London, Ontario, had a scramble crossing in the 1960s at the intersection of Clarence and King streets. In Toronto, the intersection of Yonge Street and Dundas Street, the location of Sankofa Square, has the city's first installed scramble intersection and has since been joined by two more on Bloor Street at Yonge and Bay Streets in the downtown area. In 2015, Toronto has eliminated the Bay and Bloor scramble crossing after an evaluation study found 'modest positive benefits for pedestrians' and 'negative impacts to vehicular traffic'. The staff report also noted that sideswipe collisions at Bay and Bloor have more than doubled and rear-end type crashes have increased by 50% “likely due to increased driver frustration”. Kingston, Ontario, has a scramble crosswalk at the corners of Union Street and University Avenue to increase the safety of Queen's University students.
Quebec City also has a few pedestrian scramble intersections. Many intersections in Montreal, especially near downtown, activate the walk signal in all four directions at the same time, effectively creating pedestrian scrambles.
Calgary has two pedestrian scrambles in the Eau Claire neighbourhood. St. Albert, Alberta, has installed a test pedestrian scramble as of the end of May 2017. Banff also have a few pedestrian scramble intersections.
In 2018, Edmonton had four as part of a pilot project (two on Jasper Avenue; two on Whyte Avenue, with plans for a fifth at Rogers Place to be installed later that year. In 2021 another was installed at Gateway Boulevard and Whyte Avenue. But it was announced in March 2026 that at least some of them would be removed to allow the city's buses to run quicker."Why are some of Edmonton's scramble crosswalks already being removed?" Edmonton Journal, April 6, 2026 In Canada right turns are allowed on red lights when it is safe to do so and after coming to a complete stop, unless signs say otherwise, so scramble crossings may be more than usually desired.
In China Shanghai as of 2018, has 11 major intersections equipped with pedestrian scrambles across the city in busy commercial areas. Beijing opened its first pedestrian scramble at the intersection of Lugu West Street and Zhengda Road in 2018. Two pedestrian scrambles opened in Haikou in 2019. Guangzhou has two pedestrian scrambles as of 2019. Pedestrian scrambles also exist in Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Changzhou, Nantong and Yichang. Hong Kong has numerous intersections operating with an exclusive pedestrian interval but not timed for the longer diagonal crossings and are not marked as such. Diagonal crossing at these de facto scramble crossings is illegal in Hong Kong.
In Finland A pedestrian scramble appeared after some repairs in Turku's main square, between Eerikinkatu and Aurakatu.
In Japan
Pedestrian scrambles, known as a , are very common in Japan, where there are more than over 300 such intersections. Japan's largest and most famous scramble crossing is found in Tokyo, outside Shibuya station which was inaugurated in 1973.The Asahi Shimbun 9 March 2016 issue Over 3,000 pedestrians can cross in one scramble and has become a symbol of Tokyo and Japan as a whole. Sukiyabashi in Ginza is another large scramble crossing in Tokyo.
Kansai has many pedestrian scrambles, including four outside the north exit of Kyoto Station alone. Most of the diagonal crossings in Osaka are located in the south of the city, in Abeno ward.
The first pedestrian scramble to be installed in Japan was in the Kyushu city of Kumamoto in 1969. The scramble is located in the Kokaihonmachi district of the city's Chuo ward.
In Luxembourg In the southern town of Dudelange, there is a pedestrian scramble at the busy intersection of the route de Kayl, route de Luxembourg and rue Gaffelt.
In Malaysia Since June 2021, the local municipal and authority of capital Kuala Lumpur has created a Shibuya-style pedestrian crossing at the junction of Bukit Bintang, located in front of the iconic McDonald's Bukit Bintang outlet, just below the KL Monorail Line. This was done to increase the walkability in the area.
In Mexico In downtown Tijuana diagonal pedestrian crossing with its own signal in the cycle has been applied at numerous intersections for decades. Currently the symbol to indicate pedestrian scramble is possible is a ribbon. In 2019 Mexico City installed its first pedestrian scramble in the Historic Center (Centro Histórico).
In the Netherlands In the Netherlands, a version of the crossing, called a Simultaneous Green light for Bicyclists, combined with an all way green light for pedestrians, is currently being used in a number of intersections in the North and East of the Netherlands.
In New Zealand Inspired by cities in North America, New Zealand began installing Barnes Dances in 1958, with the first being on Queen Street, Auckland, and soon in other cities as well. The Queen Street examples are Custom Street, Shortland, Wyndham, Victoria, and Wellesley Street intersections.
Over the next decade, Barnes Dance junctions became less popular, since they increased automobile congestion more than traditional pedestrian crossings did.
The Queen Street crossings remain today, despite early 2000s attempts to remove them for greater car priority, and have been extended with greater numbers of phases and pedestrian green times during the late 2000s.