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

[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...