the.com/crosswalk
a painted treaty where two tons of steel agrees to fear your sneakers
means A marked path across a road where pedestrians have the right of way to cross safely.
from A plain compound of "cross" and "walk," both old workhorses of English: "cross" from Latin "crux" (a stake, then the crucifixion's beam, then anything that intersects), "walk" from Old English "wealcan," which oddly meant to roll or toss about before it settled into mere strolling. "Crosswalk" itself is a 20th-century American coinage, born when cars made the simple act of crossing a street worth naming — and worth painting in stripes.
- name origin
- zebra crossings named for their black-white stripes
- engineering trick
- diagonal scrambles let everyone cross at once
- first one
- Rome had stepping-stone crosswalks over chariot ruts
- psychology
- painted lines reduce pedestrian deaths far more than logic suggests
hollywood walk of fame — 2,700+ brass stars embedded in sidewalks on hollywood boulevard and vine street in los angeles
shibuya crossing — world's busiest pedestrian crossing in tokyo, japan, with up to 3,000 people per cycle
abbey road crossing — zebra crossing in london where the beatles photographed their 1969 album cover