‘in the crosswalk’
courtesy of ‘Jonathan Thorpe’
DDOT’s taking dancing in the street to a whole new level starting next Wednesday when they debut a new pilot program at the intersection of 7th and H streets in NW DC near the Verizon Center.
A “barnes dance” style intersection is being set up by DDOT in an attempt to reduce the number of conflicts between pedestrians and cars, DDOT spokes person John Lisle told WTOP.
While the details are still a little fuzzy, the intersection will work as such:
Traffic continues to cycle through the intersection as usual, but when all vehicular traffic is halted pedestrians will then be able to cross the street in any direction they want.
Up, down, left, right, sideways, longways, diagonally – they’re all options for your next crosswalk adventure – get creative.
WTOP reports that the ‘pedestrians-only’ cycle will be 29 seconds long with 26 seconds to cross and a solid three second don’t walk for stragglers to clear the intersection.
The question to ask here is: How creative will people get and how soon will we be able to watch it on YouTube?
Get those cameras. The antics start Wednesday.
Rachel moved to DC in the fall of 2005 to study Journalism and Music at American University. When she’s not keeping up with the latest Major League Baseball news, she works on making music as an accomplished singer-songwriter and was even a featured performer/speaker at TEDxDupont Circle in 2012. Rachel has also contributed to The Washington Examiner and MASN Sports’ Nationals Buzz as a guest blogger. See why she loves DC. E-Mail: rachel@welovedc.com.
They have this same thing in Dundas Square in Toronto and it’s very effective! (Though it took people a couple of months to get used to the change.)
The Chinatown intersection plan does seem to be a variatiant of the classic “Barnes Dance.” Denver, first city to implement the original pattern, is considering ditching it.
See:
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2010/05/07/dancing-with-the-cars