7th & H St NW Intersection Getting Scrambled?

They have diagonal crosswalks throughout downtown Denver. From a pedestrian point of view, they’re great; not sure if it has a material impact on drivers.

Oooh… this is exciting. They have these in Beverly Hills, too, and they make the experience much more human-scale rather than car-scale. That said, this is a very busy intersection with a lot of city bus traffic, so having a four-way stop may make it even more nightmarish. Will be interesting.

One of the big problems with traffic at that intersection is that an unusually large number of vehicles coming from all directions need to make turns. The massive volume of pedestrian traffic here effectively makes turning impractical. If there was a scramble AND it meant that there would be no pedestrians for the rest of the time (even when lights were red) then I could see this really helping. There’s nothing more frustrating than getting stuck at a light for 3 cycles because a queue of vehicles are all waiting to make impossible turns.

The idea for a Barn Dance at M and Wisconsin has also been thrown around for quite some time.

At any rate, whatever happened to the idea of shutting down 7th between H and G when there is an event at the Verizon Center?

It would be nice if DDOT turned 7th St. into northbound only to improve traffic flow and make it easier to navigate by allowing left turns onto H St. from 7th St. NYC has most of their major avenues run north or south, DC should explore this option as well.

Pasadena, California does the barn dance. it will also require a shift in pedestrian and driver mindset…not a bad one but a shift nonetheless.

I’m with @Justin. I think it would be an improvement.

On Tuesday afternoon I saw DDOT employees installing “NO TURNS” signs on the traffic signal poles at 7th and H. The signs are covered right now but I assume they are associated with the pavement markings.

Yup, it sure looks like it. I hope it does not confuse people even further at that intersection. Is this a first for diagonal crossings in DC? If not, where are they?

It is called a Barnes Dance — although barn dance seems appropriate. I support Barnes Dance crossing for pedestrians. It sure would make things safer. Also around the convention center please.

How will this work?
Will there be red lights in 4 directions so all pedestrians can walk ,followed by green lights east-west, then green north-south for vehicles?
But, then that pedestrians must be forbidden to cross during any green lights. Only in this way will vehicles be able to make turns and not make the a commute a nightmare.

Today, some new signs were posted on various poles around the intersection. BUT, they are all covered up with white paper! Upon closer inspection, there is tiny red writing describing what each sign says. There are a bunch of “no turn” signs and some others. None say anything about a diagonal crossing, unfortunately.

None of the buses using that intersection make turns so it makes sense to ban turns. Vehicles needing to turn can use a parallel (and much less busy) street. The 70, 71, 79, P6, and X2 buses make no turns. Great for traffic and peds.

Everyone, it is the Barnes Dance.

Guess I’m the only one old enough to remember the Barnes Dance at virtually every intersection with a significant pedestrian presence in Downtown east of 15th Street.

What happened over time is that pedestrians ignored the Don’t Walk signs and walked across the street when facing a green light preventing cars from easily turning. After a while, DDOT’s predecessor (anything from the DC Dept. of Highways and Traffic to the DC Dept. of Public Works with a few others in between) decided to end the Barnes Dance.

From Wikipedia: Henry Barnes, a traffic engineer who worked in a number of cities including Baltimore and NYC,
was responsible for promoting the Barnes Dance, coordinating traffic signals — called the Green Wave — (which I remember when introduced on NYC’s one-way avenues), the introduction of bus lanes, and having signals set off when a vehicle appeared or a pedestrian pushed a button.

“The Barnes Dance is a street-crossing system that stops all traffic and allows pedestrians to cross intersections in every direction at the same time. This system 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 San Diego [and Washington, DC]. [Henry] Barnes stated that he did not invent the concept but promoted its widespread use. The phrase originated from City Hall reporter, John Buchanan, who wrote, ‘Barnes has made people so happy, they’re dancing in the street.'”

Why not to turn 7th Street into a one-way pair with 9th Street.

First, 9th Street is a one-way pair with 12th Street as these are the only two streets that go under the Mall.

One way streets may work in Manhattan and remain pedestrian-friendly shopping streets but we are talking about a different degree of pedestrian presence in NYC than Washington. Only the eve and day of Obama’s inaugural approached the levels of pedestrian traffic that is a daily occurence in midtown Manhattan where most of their crosstown streets are also one way — only the wider streets every 10 blocks or so are two-way streets.

As a general rule, one-way streets promote faster traffic and are not as comfortable a pedestrian — and shopping, window shopping, outdoor cafe — environment as are two-way streets. Two way streets are used to “calm” traffic — which I figured out meant slow traffic down and smell the daisies. Cars that want to zoom through Penn Quarter can use 6th Street instead and let us keep 7th a retail street that’s pedestrian friendly.

I think its a noble effort for this so called Barnes Dance, BUT you’ll continue to get pedestrians who don’t follow the traffic rules and walk into the street during traffic. If you want to control crowds, DC needs to be like NYC and put up the gates and herd people. Giuliani did it right up there. Secondly, the new pedestrian traffic pattern won’t reduce the congestion because there will still be morons driving in from MD & VA cruising the strip along 7th St. NW.

WTOP just ran a story on the 7th & H. Barnes Dance as part of a pilot program. http://wtop.com/?nid=30&sid=1951154

@Katy – thanks for the note. WTOP even used our photo and UK Daily Mail references.

Interesting that when they implement the Barnes Dance Crossing, they will make it illegal to turn at any of the lights. This will surely cause some extreme heart ache at the crossing, as people adjust to the new pattern. Something needed to be done down there though.

Media release from DDOT
DDOT Debuts Barnes Dance at 7th and H Streets, NW

New Pilot Allows All Pedestrians to Cross at the Same Time and with the Green Light

. Starts Wednesday, May 12, 10:00am
. Will Reduce Conflicts with Cars
· All Vehicular Traffic Will Stop To Allow Pedestrians to
Cross
· No Turns Will Be Allowed at 7th and H streets
. Unlike the Barnes Dance in downtown DC in the 1960s and
1970s, pedestrians will also be allowed to cross with a
green signal, as they do now

The Barnes Dance at 7th and H appears to make no sense.

Why a Barnes Dance when cars can’t make turns from 7th on to H or from H on to 7th? If vehicles can’t turn on to the other street in the intersection, then there is no conflict between vehicles and pedestrians – the pedestrians are crossing the street in the same directon as the traffic is moving — parallel to the traffic, not in conflict with it.

If there were a conflict, then DDOT would not let pedestrians walk on green – so they can walk twice, once when no vehicles are moving and again when it is green in the direction they want to walk.

This is just going to keep cars standing still longer, which will irriate drivers even more. Wonder why DDOT didn’t figure this out.

I first experienced diagonal crossing in Christchurch, New Zealand, a few years ago. I have occasionally wondered since why it isn’t used more widely. I’m glad to see it being implemented in DC, where, like so many other cities, pedestrians have taken a distant second place to the automobile.