In the 1950's, Baltimore hired a traffic engineer named Hanry Barnes from Denver to get the then-horrible traffic under control. One of his innovations was an aid to pedestrians. Once in every cycle of traffic lights, they went red in all directions for ca. 30 seconds, at which time pedestrians were free to cross in any direction, including diagonally. This became known as the Barnes Dance, and still goes on to this day at some downtown intersections. When he moved on to New York, I believe he introduced it there, but NY was a bigger and tougher job than he figured on, I suppose, as he died of a heart attack not too long after starting there.