14th JUNE 1961

Who knew that crossing the road could be such a drama?!

On this day in the UK in 1961, it was determined that good old black and white zebra crossings weren't good enough any more, and that a new type of road crossing with push button controls was to be introduced in the following year (1962).

Apparently, a worrying number of accidents were occurring surrounding zebra crossings due to drivers not paying attention, pedestrians assuming that the cars would stop and just walking out, such that in the last six months of 1960, 533 people were killed or injured on zebra crossings, compared to 447 for the last six months of 1959.

It was proposed that the new push button-controlled crossings would be introduced between approximately 40 and 50 sites across England and Wales.

However, the new "panda crossing" system was largely unsuccessful and was quickly disbanded.

The crossing consisted of triangular black and white strips, instead of the rectangular strips of the zebra crossings. On either side of the road was a push button which controlled a set of flashing lights. When a pedestrian pushed the button, a flashing light came on telling the pedestrian to wait. At this stage, a yellow or amber coloured light would come on to let drivers know that they have to slow down, before it turned to red which would let them know that they have to be stationary by this point. Next, a 'walk' sign would illuminate telling the pedestrian to 'walk', which after a specified time would start to flash warning the pedestrian that the traffic lights are about to change back to green and that it would be unsafe for them to cross.

Apparently, that was too confusing.

Following the "panda crossing" failure, the "pelican crossing" and "puffin crossing" systems were released, the latter of which is the most similar to our current traffic light systems.

It's just so weird to think that if the people had not liked the "panda crossing" system so much, it could still be the system that we have today.

This picture would have been so much different I'll tell you that much!

Image 1 available: http://www.cbrd.co.uk/histories/pedestriancrossings/4.shtml 
Image 2 available: http://www.thebeatles.com/#/albums/Abbey_Road