Doing the Zebra

[steepholm]

Okay, I'm doing this mostly to see whether I can work out how to post a poll, but I am interested in the results, as it's a moral quandary that has stumped me for years...

[Poll #1808368]

Comments

[diceytillerman.livejournal.com]

What is a zebra crossing?

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

That´s what six pairs of more or less silly shoes and one pair of pedes in the nude walk allover on a rare, hardly known recordcover of a now long forgotten pop band from the ...er: late 1960s, I think? One has already turned into a hippie, for instance.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

You know, the term isn't used in the U.S. and most Americans don't know it. There's no need to be insulting about it.

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

Oh! I am so terribly sorry, I was absolutely sure you were merely joking and applying my bad sense of humour in trying to join in! My apologies, sincerely.

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

I have never been to the U.S. so did not realise this, at all. I thought it was a common term in all english-speaking countries, whether american or otherwise. Lack of knowledge on my side, as you can see. No intention whatsoever to insult you or anyone, on the contrary! I thought, we were having fun...

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

It's a pedestrian crossing, but one that's not controlled by lights (no 'Walk/Don't Walk' signs, no illuminated green or red figures). It gives right of way to pedestrians, but this is respected more in some parts of the world than in others. In Britain, for example, you're pretty safe going on one, but in Paris it's more or less equivalent to suicide.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

While in Rome there's no 'more or less' about it!

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

In Britain, fwiw, the ones with lights are called Pelican Crossings. Why, I don't know.

[nixwilliams.livejournal.com]

By "with lights" do you include the ones with the flashing lights but not a red/green signal?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Sorry, no, the ones with flashing lights on poles are the zebras. Belisha beacons, we used to call them, after the Minister of Transport who brought zebras in (though I don't know if that's still in common use), are just there to alert drivers to the crossing's existence, rather than to control traffic. By 'with lights' I meant the ones that are coordinated with traffic lights, where you press a button and wait for the red figure to turn green.

[nixwilliams.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what I assumed, but I wanted to check the UK terminology!

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Supposedly it's an acronym.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Do you know of what? Apparently there have been Pandas and Puffins too - quite the menagerie.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I believe the "P" stands for "Pedestrian", the "L" for Light, and that's as far as I got.

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

Yes! It's supposedly for PEdestrian LIght CONtrolled. Last year when I was getting my UK license I was reading all this stuff going 'why on earth do they have such cutesy weird names for crosswalks...?' ;)

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

So I've been misspelling it all this time? It's actually a Pelicon crossing?

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

No, you've been spelling it right. Having come up with PELICON, someone then thought, 'Oh! Like a pelican!' and called it that.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Not to mention Toucans...

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

British term for crosswalk. :)