Both of Sackville’s intersections with traffic lights feature scramble crosswalks, but in most other parts of the country, they aren’t as common.
A scramble crosswalk is an intersection where all traffic stops, allowing pedestrians to cross the street at the same time in all directions either laterally or diagonally.
“I know that they’re in Toronto, Vancouver, a lot of the larger municipalities have at least one,” said Steven Oliver, Stantec senior planner and Smarter Mobility Practice Lead for Canada.
Oliver said if you Google-search a scramble crosswalk, you’ll find images of massive intersections with hordes of people crossing.
Sackville has neither a massive amount of traffic nor pedestrians, but, according to Michelle Sherwood, Superintendent of Public Works with Tantramar, the city has the right ratio of vehicles to people to warrant the scramble crossing. But that wasn’t necessarily the reason they were or are still used in Sackville.
