††††A zebra-crossing is a striped street-crossing where pedestrians have right of way over vehicles.
The advent of the motor car made the roads of the world much more dangerous for pedestrians. The first pedestrian crossing was introduced in Paris and followed shortly afterwards, in 1926, by crossings in London's Parliament Square. In 1933 these were replaced by a herring-bone pattern of white lines and a square sign marked with the letter 'C'.
In September 1934 the UK Minister of Transport, Sir Leslie Hore-Belisha, introduced a new type of road crossing, marked by studs on the road and yellow beacons. These became known as 'Belisha beacons' in honour of their instigator. The striped zebra crossings were introduced in Britain in 1951 and in 1992 the Belisha beacons, which had been made of glass and later of aluminium, were replaced by plastic beacons with winking lights inside. Since the 1970s, many pedestrian crossings have been fitted with pedestrian-operated traffic lights.
