barn dance, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

barn dance n.

[SE + ref. to Traffic Commissioner Henry Barnes, (c.1907–1968), inventor of the buzz crossing, first seen in New York City]

(Aus./N.Z./US) pedestrians rushing across a ‘buzz crossing’, in which one ‘buzzes’ a button to change the traffic light.

1959		International Road Safety and Traffic Review VII-IX 36/1: Barnes, an eminent American traffic engineer, had reinvented the system a few years ago — but it was not for that reason that the all-red phase is referred to in the US as a ‘barn dance’.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 52/1: since ca. 1950.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 16: Barn Dance, the The diagonally-striped pedestrian crossing, named after its inventor, New York City Traffic Commissioner Barnes. From c1950, ANZ.