Pedestrian scramble

The diagonal crossing ( colloquially All -Go- junction) is a special form of the all- red circuit in which it is possible for pedestrians to cross the intersection not only rectangular, but also diagonally. These include no intersections, where pedestrians walk due to the offset intersections diagonally across the street, such as in Aachen at the Lochnerstraße / Karlsgraben. In English, a diagonal crossing as a "pedestrian scramble ", " Barnes Dance" (USA), "diagonal crossing", "pedestrian priority phasing ", "pedestrian criss -cross " or "x - crossing " means.

Worldwide known is the intersection in front of the Shibuya Station in Tokyo.

At these intersections all pedestrian signals are simultaneously switched to green, so that pedestrians in Green not only can switch to the opposite side of a road, but the crossing to cross diagonally. In normal traffic lights you would have to get for the same path cross two streets and still usually wait at least one pedestrian light. During the green phase for pedestrians are all car lights to red

Intersections with diagonal crossing is easily seen that, even across the intersection ( in the diagonal direction ) pedestrian crossings are marked. In Japan, these are marked crosswalk, which is not allowed in Germany. In addition, the pedestrian lights have three instead of two directions ads, namely in the diagonal.

A cross with diagonal crossing has thus at least three traffic phases (compared with normally two):

The downside is that pedestrians who just want to cross a road, may have to wait longer than a normal intersection ( because there is not always the pedestrian lights are connected in parallel with the green auto -phase ).

This mating type were isolated before the Second World War; he found his mass distribution in the U.S. but only in 1940 by the New York traffic engineer Henry Barnes. According to him the all - go -junction called in English as " Barnes Dance".

In Japan, the crossing was introduced with diagonal crossing for the first time on March 5, 1969 in Kumamoto. Today there are over 300 such crosses in Japan. You are a characteristic feature of the areas around the train station outputs and in busy shopping areas, where the number of pedestrians is very high, and in Shibuya even a frequently photographed landmark and symbol for the Busy and narrowness of Tokyo ( many people at the same time everywhere on the street) become.

The Japanese name (Japaneseスクランブル 交差点sukuranburu Kosaten, sukuranburu as a transcription of the English ' scramble ', see label above) means ball - intersection. It is because at this intersection all go in all directions and therefore theoretically a tangle of pedestrians is in the middle of the intersection, the block each other. In practice there is always a dominant direction ( in Shibuya about the diagonal station and Centergai Street), so that only the " recessive " pedestrian by a " blocking " would speak junction.

In Germany there are diagonal crossings that are signaled as such and marked only in Cologne ( Neuss Street / William Street ), Berlin ( Friedrichstrasse / Koch Straße) and Wuppertal ( Loherstraße / Wartburgstraße ). For this, the traffic signals are equipped with additional pedestrian signal heads and markers in a diagonal direction. Another variation of the diagonal crossing was put into operation in January 2012 in Darmstadt- Arheilgen ( Messel Street / Lower Mill Road ). It is a requirement of traffic lights, the traffic locks only when requested by pedestrians in all directions and the crossing possible. The all- GREEN signaling the pedestrian without diagonal crossing is much more widespread in Germany and is mostly used on lightly loaded nodes.

Weblink

• Crisscross - Diagonal green for pedestrians not a panacea
• Study work - evaluation of traffic quality and safety of signalized intersections with diagonal crossing