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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class. It's a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey everyone, I'm Eves and welcome back to

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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class, a podcast where we unwrap

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Speaker 1: a piece of history candy every day. Today is October one, nineteen.

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Speaker 1: The day was October one, nineteen fifty one. The first

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Speaker 1: zebra crossing, the striped pedestrian crossing scene in cities across

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Speaker 1: the world, was installed in Slow England. Pedestrian accidents and

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Speaker 1: fatalities were on the rise in Britain at the time.

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Speaker 1: There were rows of metal studs on the road that

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Speaker 1: marked pedestrian crossings, which were okay for pedestrians themselves, but

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Speaker 1: were difficult for drivers to recognize. They weren't super visible

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Speaker 1: from far away. By the time a motorist drove over

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Speaker 1: the studs and felt the bumps, it would be too

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Speaker 1: late to prevent an accident. There were also a belicia

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Speaker 1: beacons or black and white poles with orange globes on top,

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Speaker 1: that marked pedestrian crossings on the side of the road,

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Speaker 1: but by the late nineteen forties, as the number of

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Speaker 1: cars on the road rose rapidly, these safety measures had

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Speaker 1: become less successful at increasing pedestrian awareness and preventing accidents.

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Speaker 1: Drivers and pedestrians were ignoring the crossings, so the government

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Speaker 1: began testing different painted pedestrian crossings that were more visible

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Speaker 1: than previous ones. The Transport Research Laboratory used model roads

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Speaker 1: then installed the designs in real world locations starting in

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Speaker 1: nineteen forty nine. They tested crossings with red and white

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Speaker 1: stripes as well as blue and yellow stripes, but in

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Speaker 1: the end black and white stripes tested best in terms

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Speaker 1: of visibility. They were easier to see from far away

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Speaker 1: and allowed drivers to reduce their speed ahead of time.

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Speaker 1: After the first official zebra crossing was installed in Slough,

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Speaker 1: they were installed in many more local shins across Britain.

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Speaker 1: They were marked on either side with Felicia beacons. The

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Speaker 1: supposed origin of the term zebra crossing goes back to

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Speaker 1: British MP and later Prime Minister Jim Callahan, who was

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Speaker 1: reported to have said the crossing looked like a zebra.

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Speaker 1: Callahan said he didn't remember making that remark. Though. Pedestrian

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Speaker 1: desks declined in the first year, but there were still

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Speaker 1: accidents at zebra crossings in busy areas and the crossings

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Speaker 1: could back up traffic, so the UK introduced Handa crossings,

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Speaker 1: which were basically zebra crossings with traffic signals on the

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Speaker 1: beacon poles. Britain and countries around the world continue to

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Speaker 1: experiment with different crossings that increased safety and visibility. Over

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Speaker 1: the years, many pedestrian crossing designs have been named after animals,

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Speaker 1: including Pelican crossings, puffin crossings, and two can crossings. I'm

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Speaker 1: eaves deaf Coote and hopefully you know a little more

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Speaker 1: about history today than you did yesterday. If you haven't

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Speaker 1: gotten your fill of history yet, you can find us

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Speaker 1: C Podcasts email still works, Send us a note at

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Speaker 1: this day at i heeart media dot com. Thank you

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Speaker 1: again for listening and we'll see you tomorrow. For more

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