This is quite an interesting word: Fußgängerquerungshilfe
It basically describes any facility that helps pedestrians cross the street. For example, it can be a pedestrian bridge over a busy street or pedestrian tunnel. What would be a general term that describes these things in English? What about “pedestrian crossing aids”?
Many thanks,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, talks: Reporting on chicken flu[YSaerTTEW443543]
Can we not just call it “Pedestrian crossing”?
Wow. That’s an interesting one. I can’t think of an existing phrase. Structures to aid to pedestrian safety, maybe? You don’t just mean a zebra crossing, but some sort of actual structure, right?
I’ve seen deer crossings, moose crossings and cattle crossings, but I have never seen a zebra crossing. I suppose they have those in African countries where there are zebras.
No, Jamie. They are called zebra crossing because the stripes on the road resembles those of a zebra.
Quite handy because cars must give way when pedestrians want to cross.
In Russian they are called literally “zebra” or a combination of zebra and some other words.
You call those stripes painted across a road “deer crossings” or “moose crossings” then ? (very interesting)
Alex, Jamie was joking.
If you see a highway sign with a deer on it, that is called a deer crossing, because deer frequently cross the road at that point, and so you need to take care that you don’t hit one.
If you see a highway sign with a moose on it, that is called a moose crossing, because moose frequently cross the road at that point, and so you need to take care that you don’t hit one.
If you see a highway sign with a cow on it, that is called a cattle crossing, because cows frequently cross the road at that point, and so you need to take care that you don’t hit one.
If you see a highway sign with a school child on it, that is called a school crossing, because school children frequently cross the road at that point, and so you need to take care that you don’t hit one.
So I am left to assume that a zebra crossing is a place where zebras cross the road, and where drivers are to use caution so as not to hit a zebra.
And what about crosswalks that have two parallel lines instead of diagonal stripes? Would those be called skunk crossings?
Oh, yeah, I see now
(I just didn’t see any smile faces in Jamie’s post and this made me pick up on his statement about “cattle crossings”) :lol: Now I get the joke.
BTW, how about “sheeple crossings”. :lol:
Sorry. :oops: You’re too worldly I didn’t think you didn’t know what zebra crossing is, so I assumed you were joking. I know there are moose, deer and cow crossing roads in the US so I thought you’ve actually seen them.
I’ve never seen a parallel one.
It was funny but I am not sure now. :? (whether he was joking)
I was joking.
But there really are deer, moose and cattle crossings, among other kinds of crossings. I’ve even seen duck crossings.
Duck? Even a small animal like ducks have rights on roads in America!
Hi Torsten,
There is also the one-size-fits -all word ‘facility’, which might be used here instead - a pedestrian crossing facility.
Alan
Do deer know where they must cross the street? 
No, but they tend to cross in more or less the same places, give or take a couple of miles.
Hi Torsten,
Your thing could be called a street refuge, and the sign a pedestrian yield sign
Hi everyone,
Many thanks for all your interesting contributions. I must admit that the term “Fußgängerquerungshilfe” was pretty new to me too and I’m glad that there doesn’t seem to exist a direct translation. This leaves some room for creativity…[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, talks: A baseball player talks about his career prospects[YSaerTTEW443543]
This was too great a coincidence to pass up mentioning. I read this thread earlier this morning, and I’ll admit, I’d never heard the term ‘zebra crossing’ in regards to a crosswalk either. But, I can easily see the reasoning for the term. I like it.
I work with the TOIEC Speaking test, and just a couple of hours after reading this thread, was scoring some responses in the ‘Describe a Picture’ task. This particular stimulus did indeed happen to be picture of many people crossing a painted pedestrian crossing.
I had to start laughing when the candidate (who spoke extremely well) identified it as a ‘zebra crossing’. What are the odds, huh?
For the record, it was not diagonal lines, but parallel lines in the picture.
Hi Ralf,
Many thanks for posting this pedestrian yield sign. As for “street refuge”, most dictionaries seem to translate this as “Verkehrsinsel”. In my understanding, “Fußgängerquerungshilfe” is a general term that refers to a variety of facilities. Those can be pedestrian yield signs, crosswalks, pedestrian tunnels, etc. The problem is that the term “Fußgängerquerungshilfe” is pretty vauge, it can be anything while “street refuge” or “crosswalk” are much precise terms. In other words, I’m looking for something that is as vauge as “Fußgängerquerungshilfe” but sounds as good :-).
Regards,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, talks: Telephone message[YSaerTTEW443543]