Barnes Dance

The Barnes Dance is a pedestrian crossing system that stops all traffic and allows pedestrians to cross intersections in every direction at the same time. The Barnes Dance was first used in Kansas City, and Vancouver in the late 1940s. Subsequently it was adopted in other cities such as Denver, Colorado, New York, and the famous Shibuya crossing in Tokyo.

Although named after Henry Barnes, the system was not originally invented by him. Barnes, however, was the first to use the system on a large scale. In his autobiography, The Man With the Red and Green Eyes , he writes that the phrase was first coined by a City Hall reporter, John Buchanan, in an article he wrote.

This type of pedestrian crossing is also known as a scramble light, or a pedestrian scramble.