A Pelican crossing is a type of pedestrian crossing featuring a pair of poles each with a standard set of traffic lights facing oncoming traffic, a push button and two illuminated, coloured men facing the pedestrian from across the road - a red, stationary man to indicate that it is not safe to cross, and a green, walking man to indicate that it is safe to do so. The name is derived from PELICON, an acronym of pedestrian light controlled. The term Pelican crossing originated in the United Kingdom, and is not in official use elsewhere, but similar traffic control devices are in use throughout the world.
The Pelican crossing was the first definitive light controlled crossing for pedestrians in the UK, introduced in 1969, after the earlier failed experiment of the panda crossing. Previously only zebra crossings had been used, which have warning signals (Belisha beacons), but no control signals. The pedestrian lights are situated on the far side of the road to the pedestrian. A puffin crossing has the lights on the same side as the pedestrian; a toucan crossing is a crossing for pedestrians and bicycles; a pegasus crossing allows horse-riders to cross as well. A HAWK beacon, used experimentally in the USA with a standard pedestrian crossing signal, stops traffic when a pedestrian pushes a button to cross, but goes dark unless activated.
Pelican crossings have further non-visual indication that it is safe to cross, such as a beep, vibrating button or tactile rotating cone in order to assist blind or partially sighted pedestrians.
Additionally, a Pelican crossing, as distinct from a pedestrian crossing, has the special feature that while the green man flashes to indicate that pedestrians may continue crossing but may not start to cross, the red light changes to an amber flashing light permitting cars to pass if there are no further pedestrians. This reduces the delay to traffic.
In UK law, Pelican crossings which go straight across the road are one crossing, even when there is a central island, therefore traffic must wait for pedestrians who are crossing from the other side of the island. This rule is different to similar standard pedestrian crossings where each portion of the crossing is treated as a separate crossing. However, at installations where the crossings that cross each carriageway are separate crossings, then they are staggered.
The pelican crossing was a relatively minor development of the X-way crossing. This earlier crossing was largely identical to the pelican crossing, but instead of a green light for motorists, featured a white diagonal cross. The intention of this was to distinguish the crossing lights from any nearby junction (standard) traffic lights). The white cross was widely critisised and users and motoring organisations alike called for the white cross to be replaced by a green light. With some changes to the light timings and road markings, the X-way crossing became the pelican crossing.
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