Distinctive Diagonal

Manchester Street now has two new Barnes Dance crossings, at Gloucester and Worcester Streets.

These allow pedestrians to cross in every direction, with all vehicles stopped while they do.  I remember the very first N.Z. Barnes Dance crossing in Auckland in the late 1950s.

The crossings are named for an American traffic engineer, Henry Barnes, and the system was first used in North America in the 1940s.  Barnes didn’t invent it, but as traffic commissioner in Denver, Baltimore, and later New York, he promoted its use in the centre of these cities.  According to Barnes the name was coined when a reporter wrote that ‘Barnes has made the people so happy they’re dancing in the streets’.

The Barnes Dance became less popular when streets became clogged with vehicles and traffic engineers regarded cars as more important than pedestrians.  It’s good to see more of the dances being constructed in central Christchurch and their benefits for pedestrian safety recognised.

“To walk diagon’ly across
just shows the drivers who is boss.”