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Road Crossing is a free online cross-the-road game that runs in the browser with no download and no sign-up. The whole board moves on one clock: one hop per tick, one cell per hop, and every lane of traffic on a repeating pattern that shifts at its own speed. Because nothing is fuzzy, the game can prove a road is crossable before showing it to you — and it does, with a breadth-first search that also sets the crossing time limit. Eight roads, from a village lane to a ten-lane tangle, and a score that pays more for a quick crossing.
How to play Road Crossing
- Tap a direction pad, or press an arrow key, to queue your next hop. Doing nothing means you stay put for that tick.
- Everything moves at once on the tick. The traffic shifts and you hop at the same moment.
- A hop is a hit if a car is on the cell when you land on it, so the question is never where a car is now but where it will be.
- Red cars move one cell per tick, amber every two ticks and blue every three. The colour is the speed.
- Reaching the green pavement at the top counts as a crossing and puts you back on the kerb for the next one.
- The bar along the top is the clock for the crossing in progress. Running it out costs a life, as does being hit.
- Make the level’s quota of crossings with lives left to open the next road. A faster crossing scores more.
Tips
- Watch the lane you are about to enter, not the one you are in. A cell that is clear now will not be clear when you land if the car beside it is moving that way.
- Sideways hops are free lane changes. Moving along a lane to line up with a gap in the next one is usually faster than waiting for that gap to come to you.
- Blue lanes are your rest stops. At one cell per three ticks a blue lane gap stays open long enough to plan the next two hops from inside it.
- Do not wait on the kerb. The clock only starts when you leave it, but the score is paid out of the time you have left, so a hesitant crossing is a cheap one.
- Every road has a proven route, and the end-of-level card tells you how many hops the fastest one takes. If you are using far more than that, you are waiting where you should be sidestepping.
- When two fast lanes sit together, cross them as one move: step into the first the tick before its gap reaches the second.
- Restart replays the same road so you can learn its rhythm. New Road generates a different one at the same density.
FAQ
Is Road Crossing free to play?
Yes. It runs in your browser with no download, no account and nothing to buy. All eight roads are here and they unlock as you clear them.
Is the traffic random?
No. Each lane is a repeating pattern of cars at a fixed spacing, shifting one cell every one, two or three ticks. Once you have watched a lane for a few ticks you know exactly what it will do.
Can I get a road that cannot be crossed?
No. Because the traffic repeats, the whole road is a finite graph, so the game runs a breadth-first search for a route before handing it to you and throws away anything without one. The same search sets the crossing time limit.
Why did I get hit on a cell that looked empty?
Because you and the traffic move on the same tick. The cell was empty when you pressed, and a car moved into it as you landed. Aim at where the gap will be one tick from now.
What is the bar across the top?
The clock for the crossing you are on. It only runs while you are off the kerb, and whatever is left of it when you reach the far side is added to your score, so quick crossings are worth much more than careful ones.
Does it use the name of the classic arcade game?
No, and deliberately. This is an original take on the cross-the-road genre with its own discrete, provable traffic model, not a reproduction of any particular published game.
Does Road Crossing work on a phone?
Yes. The board is drawn square and scales to the portrait frame, and the four direction pads sit across the bottom under your thumbs.