When was the first pedestrian crossing established?
First PEDESTRIAN CROSSING.
The first PEDESTRIAN CROSSING in the UK was established in Parliament Square, London at the instigation of the London Traffic Advisory Committee in December 1926. The crossing was indicated by a square white sign on a metal post bearing a cross, a directional arrow, and the words PLEASE CROSS HERE. Others were erected at 16 points in Piccadilly Circus, the Haymarket and neighbouring streets the following August. Principal crossing was marked with two parallel white lines painted across the road. In 1933-4 these were replaced with a herring–bone pattern of white lines, and the square board gave way to a large circular sign marked with the letter ‘C’.
In 1934, a new type of standardized crossing marked by studs on the road and yellow beacons on the pavement was introduced at the behest of the Minister of Transport, Sir Leslie Hore-Belisha. The name ‘Belisha Beacon’ for the pavement signs, which were first erected in Kensington Road in September, was suggested in a letter to The Times of 13 October 1934 from Mr H. Lang Jones of West Dulwich in response to an earlier correspondent who had favoured `Beleacon’. The original beacons were made of glass and were the constant prey of small boys with stones, so that it soon became necessary to replace them with painted aluminium globes. Plastic beacons with winking lights were introduced in July 1952.
Zebra crossing were introduced in 1951, with regulations effective from 31 October.
