Crossings in the United Kingdom

Main article: Crossings#Street crossings

Pedestrian crossings in the United Kingdom are officially classified by a variety of cute and cuddly zoo animals. This terminology remains valid in the UK (and is defined in legislation) whereas it has mostly been phased out elsewhere.

Worldwide on OSM there has been a move toward describing the features of a crossing rather than using a crossing_ref. Whilst the UK may be continuing the use of crossing_ref (allowing double-tagging with crossing features) Taginfo stats show a 400k worldwide drop in 2024 alone.

A legally-enforceable Zebra crossing (with zebra stripes, dots, belisha beacons, and a Traffic Road Order) and a marked pedestrian crossing in a supermarket car park (often simply zebra stripes) are not the same thing in respect to whether cars must legally stop for pedestrians or not. The markings in the car park are a guide only.

Common UK Crossing Types

Common UK street crossing configurations

Type		Photograph	Description	Primary Tags	Additional Tags
Legally Defined Crossings	Zebra		Legally defined zebra crossing, with beacons and zig-zags. Note: It is also permitted to have a legal zebra crossing across a cycleway, without the need for beacons or zig-zags.	highway=crossing crossing=marked crossing_ref=zebra	crossing:markings=zebra;dots
	Parallel		Modified version of the zebra crossing, with a separate parallel lane for cycles.	highway=crossing crossing=marked crossing_ref=parallel	crossing:markings=zebra;dots
	Pelican		Legally defined pelican crossing, with push button for pedestrians and red/green man lights on opposite side.	highway=crossing crossing=traffic_signals crossing_ref=pelican	crossing:signals=yes crossing:markings=*
	Puffin		Legally defined puffin crossing, with push button for pedestrians and red/green man lights on the boxes with the button.	highway=crossing crossing=traffic_signals crossing_ref=puffin	crossing:signals=yes crossing:markings=*
	Toucan		Legally defined toucan crossing, with push button for pedestrians and cyclists. Can have red/green man and cycle lights on the opposite side (like a pelican crossing) or on the near side (like a puffin crossing).	highway=crossing crossing=traffic_signals crossing_ref=toucan	crossing:signals=yes crossing:markings=*
	Pegasus		Legally defined pegasus crossing, with push button for horse-riders. Can have the red/green horse lights on the opposite side (like a pelican crossing) or on the near side (like a puffin crossing).	highway=crossing crossing=traffic_signals crossing_ref=pegasus	crossing:signals=yes crossing:markings=*
	Cycleway		Technically a "signal‑controlled cycle facility" (as defined in §12.9 of [1]), which operates like a traffic-light junction but with one of the roads being a cycleway. Will often have smaller low-level traffic lights on the cycleway, and a call button for cyclists to request a green phase on their lights.	highway=crossing crossing=traffic_signals crossing_ref=cycleway ??	crossing:signals=yes crossing:markings=*
Other Crossing Types	Informal		Natural crossing point, but without any markings or designed infrastructure (e.g. drop kerbs).	crossing=informal (Note the deliberate absence of highway=crossing.)	crossing:markings=no
	Unmarked		Designed crossing point, with e.g. drop kerbs and/or tactile paving, but no markings on the road. Crossings of the side-road at a T-junction are usually of this type.	highway=crossing crossing=unmarked	crossing:markings=no
	Island (unmarked)		Designed crossing point, with a central island and possibly drop kerbs and/or tactile paving, but no markings on the road.	highway=crossing crossing=unmarked crossing:island=yes	crossing:markings=no
	Raised Table		Designed crossing point, utilising a raised table in the road.	highway=crossing crossing=marked	crossing:markings=surface
	Informal Zebra		Crossing with zebra stripes but without full legal design features (i.e. beacons and zig-zags on approach). Commonly used in supermarket and retail park car parks.	highway=crossing crossing=marked crossing_ref=informal_zebra ??	crossing:markings=zebra

Tagging of Additional Crossing Features

Feature	Photograph	Description	Tagging	Object to Tag
Tactile paving		Typically pink/red or buff/sand-coloured paving slabs with an array of raised bobbles to allow vision impaired users to feel where the crossing is. Tactile paving at controlled crossings should be pink/red.	tactile_paving=* tactile_paving:colour=*
Audible crossing indicator		Some signal-controlled crossings will emit an audible beeping sound when the green man is shown to aid visually impaired users.	traffic_signals:sound=yes
Tactile crossing indicator		Many signal-controlled crossings will have a small plastic cone protruding from the underside of the call point box. This cone rotates when the green man is shown to aid visually impaired users.	traffic_signals:vibration=yes
Countdown timer		Some signal-controlled crossings have a visible countdown timer to show how much crossing time is left for pedestrians and other users.	traffic_signals:countdown=yes	Node at the crossing point

Common tagging mistakes

crossing_ref=countdown

		$1%
		$1%
		$1%
		$1%

More details at taginfo

• crossing_ref=countdown ‒ Not a distinct crossing type, add traffic_signals:countdown=yes instead

If you know places with this tag, verify if it could be tagged with another tag.
Automated edits are strongly discouraged unless you really know what you are doing!

External links

Schedule 14 TSRGD 2016 - Signs for traffic control by light signals, signs for crossings, and signs for lane control - current legislation for Great Britain, with diagrams
Traffic Signs Manual - Chapter 6: Traffic Control (PDF) - 2019 guidance from the Department for Transport
Guidance on the Use of Tactile Paving Surfaces (PDF) - 2021 guidance from the Department for Transport