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August 5, 2008
A New Way of Walking in Westwood Village
This doesn't even look like a crosswalk, but this is is a scramble crosswalk in Tokyo | Photo by Julie Wolfson/LAist
Come Thursday, UCLA folk and others will have a new way of crossing the street at Le Conte and Westwood. It's called a scramble crosswalk and is currently in use in Pasadena, Beverly Hills and at Hoover and Jefferson near USC. It's where pedestrians can cross the street from all four corners at the same light as well as diagonally from opposite ends, according to a story posted on UCLA Today Online.
In the long-term city officials say there will be a slight waiting delay for pedestrians. Traffic should move more smoothly too as right-turn on red vehicles will have less pedestrians to wait for when turning, therefore things should be safer in general.
If all goes well, another scramble crosswalk will be installed at Weyburn and Bronxton (h/t LAT). Also: Nearby, you can find the country's dumbest bike lane according to Slate.com.
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I think this will be a great change. I both walk and drive down this area daily and it's generally a clusterf*ck since BigBlue and Metro/Rapid also have stops at this corner.
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Crosswalk factoid:
A scramble crossing intersection is also sometimes known as a "Barnes Dance", after Henry Barnes, the American traffic engineer who first promoted their use.
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They have these on the campus of UT Austin, and they're so awesome because you can cross diagonally! A dream come true!!!
Now if only we can get that at the dreaded intersection of Sunset/Hollywood/Hillhurst/Virgil...
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this will allow students to get to in n out in half the time
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Props to the author for mentioning the cross at Jefferson & Hoover. It makes things a lot easier with all those sorority girls barreling through on their beach cruisers they can't control.
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I thought I'd already seen some of these in westwood. Maybe I can foretell the future.
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It's been a long time coming!
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YES! Please install more of these at the following locations:
Santa Monica and Fairfax
Hollywood and Highland
Sunset and Vine
Vermont and Wilshire
Vermont and Santa Monica
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i swear there was one in westwood, too. anyway, pasadena has them on colorado & i love them.