Abstract. We present a unifying model of plateau-to-plateau transitions in the quantum Hall effect based on results from high resolution frequency scaling experiments. We show that as the frequency or quantum coherence length of the two-dimensional electron system is varied, one observes a crossover between classical percolation and quantum percolation in the measured values of the critical scaling exponents of the plateau-to-plateau transitions. This crossover is dependent on the relationship between certain relevant length scales of a twodimensional system and can be explained using a quantum percolation model. The model explains why quantum criticality can be observed in some systems, but is absent from others.