Macau will get one more X crossing (aka pedestrian scramble or diagonal crossing) today, when the traditional straight zebra crossings at the junction of Rua da Serenidade (永定街) and Rua Oito do Bairro Iao Hon (祐漢新村第八街) will be replaced by a traffic light-controlled X crossing, the Transport Bureau (DSAT) announced in a statement yesterday.
According to Wikipedia, a pedestrian scramble is a type of traffic signal movement that temporarily stops all vehicular traffic, thereby allowing pedestrians to cross a junction in every direction, including diagonally, at the same time.
The new pedestrian scramble that will come into use today is Macau’s fifth of its kind, which is located just a stone’s throw from the city’s first diagonal crossing, namely at the junction of Rua da Serenidade and Rua da Tribuna (看台街), which came into use in November 2021. This means that from today the neighbourhood, which is near the Barrier Gate border checkpoint, has two X crossings.
Macau’s second X crossing came into use in May last year at the junction of the busy Avenida do Coronel Mesquita (美副將大馬路) and Rua de São João Bosco (鮑思高街), i.e., outside Dom Bosco (Yuet Wah) College (鮑思高粵華小學). The junction is used by a large number of schoolchildren.
The city’s third pedestrian scramble came into use in November last year at the junction of the busy Avenida do Conselheiro Ferreira de Almeida (荷蘭園大馬路) and Estrada de Adolfo Loureiro (羅利老馬路), i.e., the junction near Lou Lim Ieoc Garden.
Macau’s fourth X crossing came into operation in February this year at the junction of the busy Avenida do Almirante Lacerda (提督馬路) and Estrada do Repouso (鏡湖馬路).
For each of the city’s first four X crossings, a diagonal crossing replaced traditional straight crossings controlled by traffic lights, while for the new X crossing that will come into use today, a pedestrian scramble will replace traditional straight zebra crossings.
Yesterday’s statement said that the new diagonal crossing at the junction will come into use once the respective road markings have been painted this morning.
The statement underlined that compared to traditional straight crossings, diagonal crossings enable pedestrians to cross the respective junctions in a shorter time, and allow extra spaces to cross there.
While globally pedestrian scrambles are used in a number of countries and regions, they are particularly common in major cities in Japan.
