I'm not sure if chopped corners area a required feature of Super Blocks but man those are annoying zebra lines... You have to walk 10 meters more to use the zebra line on each intersection!
And I thought 2nd paragraph from Wikipedia offers an interesting insight on cultural priorities:
> It was first used in Canada and the United States in the late 1940s, but it later fell out of favor with traffic engineers there, as it was seen as prioritizing flow of pedestrians over flow of car traffic. Its benefits for pedestrian amenity and safety have led to new examples being installed in many countries in recent years
I think they still do, but they at least used to have this in the SF Financial District, it was always fun walking out to lunch with hordes of people all crossing the street whichever way they wanted, including diagonally through the intersection.
In big eastern US cities, there's been much more of a "whatever won't get you run down" approach to intersections than was historically the case out west. At least a couple decades ago, western cities had a reputation for ticketing pedestrians for crossing against lights that would have been laughable in e.g. NYC.
9 years ago when I worked in Downtown Seattle, crossing against the light could get you a ticket, even at 630 in the morning. Nobody was driving, and they still insisted that you wait.
> man those are annoying zebra lines... You have to walk 10 meters more to use the zebra line on each intersection!
Unless you are trying to cross perpendicularly, then you have to walk 10 meters less. Averages out to being similar (and isn't annoying to use in person).
Regardless, it shortens the crossing length, and puts crossing pedestrians at a perpendicular angle to turning drivers, both of which drastically increase pedestrian safety.
