Lithuania’s second-biggest city has built the first so-called X crossing, making it easier and faster for pedestrians to cross the street.
Traffic signals at the X crossing – or pedestrian scramble – stop all vehicular transport at once, allowing pedestrians to cross in all directions, including diagonally.
Such crossings are usually installed near popular sites with intense pedestrian traffic. In Kaunas, the first X-shaped crossing has been installed at an intersection of Donelaičio and Maironio streets, the city's municipality said in a press release.
“We notice that at normal crossings, not all pedestrians wait patiently for two phases of traffic lights to cross to the opposite corner of the intersection and cross two streets at right angles. This will not be necessary at a diagonal crossing,” says Martynas Matusevičius, head of the Transport and Traffic Organisation Division at Kaunas Municipality. “It is also comfortable and safe for disabled people, with lowered kerbs to make it easier to move.”
In the future, he adds, the city may install more diagonal crossings, if possible.
X crossings were first used in Canada and the US in the late 1940s and were later rediscovered as a way to prioritise pedestrian safety and convenience. Examples include the world’s busiest pedestrian intersection at Shibuya, Tokyo.
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