First Zebra Crossing - in Slough, 70 years ago
70 years ago today on the 31st of October 1951, Zebra crossings came into use for the first time in England and in the UK as the first official zebra crossing started protecting pedestrians in Slough High Street.
Post-war Britain had only 10 percent of its current road traffic, but fatalities were mounting. The typical pedestrian crossing was marked with nothing more than metal studs in the road: easy for pedestrians to see, but difficult for the motorist. By the time a driver felt the bumps under his tyres, it was usually too late to stop or slow down.
The government's Transport Research Laboratory ran visibility experiments on new types of crossings, using model roads at 1/24 scale (a half-inch to the foot). The lab then tested a variety of designs at a thousand locations starting in 1949. Broad black and white stripes had the most visual impact.
The new striped crossings were made the legal standard in Britain and widely introduced in late 1951, starting at Slough. Pedestrian deaths dropped 11 percent in the first year.
Jim Callaghan, Member of Parliament (and later prime minister), visited the lab in 1948 and is sometimes credited with first noting the crossing's resemblance to a zebra. Despite Callaghan's saying in 1951 that he didn't remember doing that, no one else has ever claimed credit, and the name zebra crossing caught on.
Post-war Britain had only 10 percent of its current road traffic, but fatalities were mounting. The typical pedestrian crossing was marked with nothing more than metal studs in the road: easy for pedestrians to see, but difficult for the motorist. By the time a driver felt the bumps under his tyres, it was usually too late to stop or slow down.
The government's Transport Research Laboratory ran visibility experiments on new types of crossings, using model roads at 1/24 scale (a half-inch to the foot). The lab then tested a variety of designs at a thousand locations starting in 1949. Broad black and white stripes had the most visual impact.
The new striped crossings were made the legal standard in Britain and widely introduced in late 1951, starting at Slough. Pedestrian deaths dropped 11 percent in the first year.
Jim Callaghan, Member of Parliament (and later prime minister), visited the lab in 1948 and is sometimes credited with first noting the crossing's resemblance to a zebra. Despite Callaghan's saying in 1951 that he didn't remember doing that, no one else has ever claimed credit, and the name zebra crossing caught on.
