Pedestrian crossings
Report a fault
You can use our online fault reporting system to report problems with pedestrian crossings.
How we decide where to put crossings
If a pedestrian has been injured at a site then a request for a crossing will be considered in detail, if not then the site will only be considered if it is busy enough.
The type of crossing is mainly decided by what the site is like, such as how fast the traffic is and how difficult it is to cross. The conversion of existing zebra crossings to puffin crossings is only considered on safety grounds.
Types of crossing
Zebra crossing
This is probably the most familiar crossing, with black and white stripes across the road and orange beacons on each side. Drivers must give way to pedestrians, who should check that all traffic has stopped before crossing.
Pelican crossing
Stands for 'Pedestrian light control'. At this type of crossing the pedestrian pushes a button, traffic lights stop the traffic and a green man signal shows the pedestrian it is safe to cross. A red man signal shows when not to cross.
Toucan crossing
Stands for ‘Two can cross' and is like a Pelican crossing but allows pedestrians and cyclists to cross at the same time. It has red and green bicycle signals as well as red and green men.
Puffin crossing
Stands for 'Pedestrian user friendly intelligent'. These crossings have detectors that can tell when pedestrians are waiting to cross. The detectors control the traffic lights so that people have enough time to cross safely, but also change them to green as soon as the crossing is clear and there is no-one else waiting to cross.
Pegasus crossing
This is a horse-friendly type of pelican crossing. The button to activate it is much higher so that horse riders can reach it without having to dismount, and there are red and green horse signals as well as red and green men.
Contact us
For more information or to request a new crossing, please contact the Traffic and Safety team.
