Crosswalk
A crosswalk, or pedestrian crossing, is a marked path across a street, designed to keep pedestrians together where they can be seen by motorists, and where they can cross most safely with the flow of vehicular traffic at intersections. Areas with high pedestrian traffic or no nearby intersection may have a standalone crosswalk with a traffic light.
Crosswalks are usually marked with white stripes, though every municipality seems to have a slightly different method, style, or pattern for doing so. At each end, the poles which hold the traffic lights also have WALK and DON'T WALK signs, usually lighted with white fluorescent argon tubes and red-orange neon tubes, respectively. A button is usually provided to trigger the signs and the lights (which are synchronized) to change, just as traffic sensors do for cars.
Crosswalks have also been adapted for the blind by adding two small loudspeakers at each corner, chirping when it is safe to cross east-west, and cuckooing for north-south. Salt Lake City has had these for years; other towns include Yakima, Washington and Waynesville, North Carolina. The speakers are not usually installed at every crosswalk in a city.
A crosswalk at Abbey Road in London was made famous by being featured on the cover of The Beatles' album Abbey Road.