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And in India, they are commonly refereed to as "Zebra Crossing". No one refers to them as cross-walks and most have no idea about that term.
by krtkush 6y ago
And in India, they are commonly refereed to as "Zebra Crossing". No one refers to them as cross-walks and most have no idea about that term.
- dkdbejwi383 6y agoSame in the UK and most commonwealth countries I think
- wiredfool 6y agoThere are pelicans too. Because pelicans have bright yellow flashing balls and ...
- dkdbejwi383 6y agoMy favourite is the Toucan crossing. They are a lot wider, with two sets of buttons at pedestrian height, and a cyclist height. Named as such because "two (types of road user) can" cross it.
- globular-toast 6y agoI like the Pegasus crossing. It has an even higher button that can be used by horse riders without dismounting.
- wiredfool 6y agoHow different are the heights of cyclists and pedestrians when they're waiting for a crossing light? I think it's time for a vast menagerie of crossings. 1) The AARdvark crossing. When you hit the button it sings the aardvark song. Also useful on talk like a pirate day. 2) The Abalone crossing. It's under the water and quite endangered. ...
- corin_ 6y agoNo the flashing balls go with zebra crossings, pelicans use actual traffic lights. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelican_crossing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelican_crossing
- forest_dweller 6y agoThe bright yellow flashing balls are called a Belisha beacon and they are for zebra crossings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belisha_beacon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belisha_beacon Pelican crossings have the button you must press to cross.
- tialaramex 6y agoAs listed by others, popular crossing types in this group (the UK has a set of rules for how this should work and then local government can do paperwork to get something else appropriate if none of the existing designs are suitable) Zebra has striped road markings, with flashing yellow marker lights so that vehicle users have plenty of advance warning of the crossing. Pedestrians have right of way on these crossings at all times, other road users should slow until they can discern whether any pedestrians are trying to cross and if necessary stop. Pelican is an older design, though still used in new crossings in London and some other places. The pedestrians controls are in a box at hand height but the signals are on the far side of the crossing. These trigger road signals in a pattern with an extra flashing amber phase meaning "road vehicles may cross only if there are no pedestrians using the crossing". Puffin is a replacement for Pelican with two innovations. Firstly the pedestrian signals are with your controls on your side of the road and they're placed so that to face towards them you're also facing oncoming traffic (this will most often be the right side of the crossing since the British drive on the left, but not in every situation). Secondly there is no flashing amber phase, the Puffin has infrared detectors so it can discern whether pedestrians are still on the crossing and extend the red phase slightly if they are. The Toucan and Pegasus mentioned elsewhere are variants of Puffin rather than Pelican.
- drdec 6y agoIn the US we have deer crossings, moose crossings and even the occasional duck crossing or goose crossing.
- dempseye 6y agoIn Ireland we have zebra and pelican crossings. The general term used in the driver training literature is "pedestrian crossing." Most people would recognise the term "crosswalk" from American media, though.
- bryanrasmussen 6y agounless they live in a country were American media is dubbed. Even then I'm not sure if you really recognize it, how often do I actually hear cross-walk in a movie or show? on edit: changed here to hear.
- Taniwha 6y agoEven in the US things are different from state to state, in California every uncontrolled intersection has 'crosswalks' where pedestrians have right of way, even if they are not painted in. Pedestrians are not supposed to cross in the middle of a block, unless there's a marked crossing (which is the only place you're likely to see an actual zebra crossing)
- tankenmate 6y agoPersonally I refused to answer "crosswalk" or "fire hydrant" questions, that's not what they are like around here. We have pedestrian crossings, not cross walks. Fire hydrants around here are inside the ground, or in a riser if inside a building.
- mkl 6y ago"Pedestrian crossing" in NZ. Or just "crossing", if the context is clear.
- eythian 6y agoWhen I was young in NZ, they were zebra crossings. But then I noticed that they started more and more to be a pair of lines across the road than the zebra patterns, and the name seemed to gradually fall out of use.
- auscompgeek 6y agoIn Australia (or at least in NSW) only crossings at traffic lights are marked with a pair of lines across the road. The majority of crossings not at traffic lights are zebra crossings.
- Taniwha 6y agoThey will still have a faux "belisha ball" (just an orange disk) next to them
- adamjb 6y agoIn Australia zebra crossings are a type of pedestrian crossing where pedestrians always have right of way.
- StavrosK 6y agoIsn't that what everybody else is talking about too?
- OJFord 6y agoI don't think 'crosswalks' require road traffic give way to pedestrians? Don't they just mark where crossing the road is not 'jaywalking'?
- StavrosK 6y agoHmm, I thought they did, but now that you mention it I realize I'm not sure. In the UK they do, but "crosswalk" refers to the US one. Can any US people clarify?
- OJFord 6y agoSorry I assumed you were in the US, our (I'm also in the UK) zebra crossings do yes, but I was under the impression that they just marked any crossing (even at traffic lights) in the US. But I'm basically only familiar with them from bloody reCaptchas, so I don't know!
- pueblito 6y agoIn Colorado, pedestrians have right of way regardless of where they cross. Bikes and horses are treated as vehicles and entitled to the entire lane if they want. If the road is one lane, then uphill has right of way.
- curryst 6y agoThe presence of a crosswalk generally gives pedestrians the right of way. At traffic lights, there are normally the usual car traffic lights (red, yellow and green), and then "pedestrian traffic lights" that face the crosswalks. The pedestrian traffic lights usually light up white in the shape of a person when you have the right of way to cross the crosswalk, or they show a red hand if you do not have the right of way. For crosswalks not at an intersection (typically when there is several hundred feet of road without an intersection for crosswalks), I believe pedestrians always have the right of way. Sometimes they have a button you can push that will activate yellow lights overhead so drivers know that you're crossing (primarily useful at night). I think you have the right of way regardless, but given how little attention many people pay, I tend to treat them like I'm jaywalking anyways.
- halfdan 6y agoZebrastreifen in Germany.
- lota-putty 6y agoThere are no Zebras in Indian subcontinent; we accepted Anglo term. Cross-Walk(even Pedestrian) is a better term than Zebra-Crossing; for kids though, Zebra helps. Edit: English were in world over making colonies across Afro-Asian countries. https://www.thehindu.com/in-school/sh-science/The-zebra-in-our-crossings/article16084479.ece https://www.thehindu.com/in-school/sh-science/The-zebra-in-o... Has anyone seen a Zebra cross a zebra-crossing? Only happens in England.
- dkdbejwi383 6y agoNo zebras in the UK, either
- corin_ 6y agoA zebra crossing is a specific type of pedestrian crossing with specific rules different to those of other types. It needs a non-generic name (and look) so people understand how it works. Sure you could change your suggestion to something like "non-light controlled pedestrian right of way crossing" but I'm glad we say Zebra instead!
- abdullahkhalids 6y agoI am not sure what to make of this argument. We adopted English, the language from the British. The standard colonial oppression arguments already start from why use a foreign Language. They used zebra crossing (even though there are no Zebras in the UK either, I think), so we used it. Now the new argument is that the cultural imperialism of the US is forcing us to change the term again. Sure, the term "cross-walk" sort of makes more sense than zebra crossing, but not enough that you don't need it defined for you the first time you encounter it. So, it is not such a precise and great term, as you almost say, that one can ignore the cultural imperialism argument. Both arguments (colonialism and cultural imperialism) are distinct and can be treated separately.
- alias_neo 6y agoWe do have Zebra, have you never heard of a Zoo? (I jest; you are of course correct). As for cross-walk making more sense; Zebra crossing are so named because of the black and white stripes they comprise of, they require you to have seen one, yes, but, I'd argue that without context "cross-walk" is no more descriptive. Collectively, we call our crossings (Toucan, Pelican, Zebra, Pegasus), "road crossings". They are so named due to their properties; Toucan because "two (types of user) can" cross there, Pelican (formerly pelicon) because it stands for PEdestrian LIght C[O]Ntrolled crossing), Zebra for its stripes, and Pegasus due to the buttons being accessible at heights suitable for those riding horses.
- rndgermandude 6y agoZebrastreifen ("zebra stripes") is the German colloquial name. You will hardly find anybody (at least in my parts) calling them the proper official "Fußgängerüberweg" (pedestrian overpath/pedestrian crossing). Even most police will call them Zebrastreifen except sometimes when writing reports or in court. I failed a few recaptchas like that too, tho not due to language barrier, but because I didn't pick some things that didn't look like crossings at all. I am convinced that some of those supposed markings were not crossings at all but things that somehow got into google's labeling db as outright false positives.
- grishka 6y agoЗебра (zebra) in Russian too, especially if you're referring to the road markings themselves. I find recaptchas downright humiliating. I think twice before completing one — is whatever it grants access to worth it?
- andai 6y agoIf you use a browser which blocks fingerprinting, CAPTCHA may fail you 3-4 times even if you give correct answers. CAPTCHA was giving me anger management issues last few weeks until I realized I can just open same URL in another browser and then most of the time it doesn't even ask for CAPTCHA because the fingerprinting is so accurate it knows who I am (or it lets me in after the first round).
- grishka 6y agoI mean... add to that the fact that my ISP literally uses a single public IP address for all its subscribers, and then it's no wonder I hate this stuff. Googling anything in a private window is a gamble. This and Cloudflare. Cloudflare is the worst.
- Normille 6y agoOr just leave that website. Why should you be subjected to torment for the privilege of boosting some website's visitor numbers? Imagine if, every time you went to the supermarket or the library, there was some goon on the door who wouldn't let you in unless you could do ten press-ups and answer half a dozen general knowledge questions. They'd soon go out of business --as all websites which treat their visitors with such contempt deserve to do.
- lysp 6y agoPedestrian crossing in Australia
- Normille 6y agoSo basically it seems that in almost every country in the world they're referred to as 'Zebra Crossings' except in the US. But, of course, we've all got to 'adopt' their terminology. It's a bit like that idiotic back to front MM-DD-YYYY date format that no-one else uses outside America, but even non-US gadget manufacturers insist on making the default. I nearly sent my Xiaomi MiBand back when I realised it was hard-wired to display the date back to front. Luckily, with my middle-aged eyesight and the minuscule 3pt text it uses to display the date, I can't read the fecker anyway, so the annoyance is slightly diminished.
- Khaine 6y agoIve never heard that. I've always heard zebra crossing
- _zamorano_ 6y agoSame in Spain. Here we say "Pasos de cebra" and I can hardly figure out any other name.
- romanoderoma 6y agowe call them "strisce pedonali" (pedestrian stripes) in Italy, no one refers to them as crossing, and usually we just call them stripes.
- pkaye 6y agoThey are also called "Zebra Crossing" in the US.