They are called scrambles, there are a few in the UK but they are much more common in Japan. As you surmised they only really make sense when there are a large

They are called scrambles, there are a few in the UK but they are much more common in Japan. As you surmised they only really make sense when there are a large number of pedestrians and vehicular traffic has a low priority. When I took traffic engineering at university we were taught that crossing layouts like this where pedestrians can move more freely are statistically much safer as drivers drive much more carefully. Another example is Exhibition Road, where the entire road is shared between pedestrians and cars. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exhibition_Road http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exhibition_Road