Monkey Bar Pedestrian Overpass

Worker Joe approaches a busy 4-lane intersection, stopping at the curb to wait for the crosswalk. It's the 5th time this morning he's been stopped at a crosswalk because the traffic lights in his city are timed for the cars to see green, not the pedestrians. He mashes the button impatiently, but knows somewhere in his subconscious that it does nothing to decrease the timer interval. Even once he gets the signal, he stops four lanes of traffic for a good 30 seconds, a complete waste. The next intersection is newer, and has a simple metal monkey bar set extending across the intersection, even across the diagonal. Worker (yes, that was his first name, not his job title) crosses without disrupting traffic, getting some exercise and blisters to boot.

The stoplights and things hang from these bars, and city service workers can access them for repairs without stopping up traffic. Some high-powered business execs run across the tops of the monkey bars, just like those kids at school, but most people just take it hand over hand.

Not great for the handicapped, but much cheaper for the city ("if you don't mind killing the civilians") than pedestrian overpasses or tunnels.