Hacker News Reader

I think what you're describing is a "scamble" crosswalk.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedestrian_scramble

They're a nice way of balancing foot traffic with the need for vehicles to turn at a light. I'm not sure why they're not more popular around the world.

View on HN

Not quite. I was thinking of a single crossing. At least in the US at many intersections the pedestrian light is synced with the parallel car traffic, which leads to a stream of people blocking right turn traffic due to a constant stream. I am talking about building in a batch iteration, e.g., during the green light, there is a flashing yellow that requires pedestrians to stop for 5 seconds, which would cause pedestrians crossing to group together and creating gaps during which cars can turn.

> I'm not sure why they're not more popular around the world

Because they tend to prioritize pedestrian traffic.

Can't have those poor people taking over our streets, now can we? Feet don't make rich people money, cars do.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com