Sheffield set to become UK's biggest city to trial new zebra crossings, hoping to boost active travel and cut road deaths

The new crossings are a hundred times cheaper than traditional zebras, but are not currently recommended by the Department for Transport.

Sheffield is set to trial an innovative new form of zebra crossing that could make it easier and quicker for pedestrians to navigate the city, as well as cut the number of deaths and serious injuries on our roads.

‘Side road zebras’ refer to black-and-white crossings installed on residential side streets that don’t feature the flashing yellow Belisha beacons and zig-zag markings that traditionally signpost zebra crossings in the UK.

A document shared ahead of a Full Council meeting tomorrow shows that Sheffield will soon become the biggest local authority in the UK to roll out side road zebras on a trial basis.

Zebra crossings without beacons are not currently recommended by the Department for Transport, but Labour councils in Tameside, Cardiff and Westminster have been installing them on an experimental basis to see if they boost active travel and lead to safer streets.

Active travel advocates say side road zebras can cost up to 100 times less to install than traditional crossings. Cash strapped councils don’t need to wire up the Belisha beacons, and so can roll them out at speed and at scale. In 2019, Chris Boardman estimated the cost of side road zebras to be around £300 each compared to £30,000 for a traditional crossing.

Councillors in Sheffield want to see them up and running in the city by May 2026.

“We’re working to introduce side road zebras because we know they can make a big difference in creating safer, more people-friendly streets, especially for children, older people and disabled residents,” Councillor Ben Miskell, chair of the Transport, Regeneration and Climate Policy Committee, said.

“While we install new crossings every year, there’s a limit to how many we can deliver through traditional means. Side road zebras reinforce the priority pedestrians already have at junctions and offer a cost-effective way to expand the number of safe crossing points across the city.”

In 2022, the Highway Code was updated to make clear that pedestrians crossing side roads have priority over drivers in England, Scotland and Wales, but without road markings this is often not adhered to.

A recent trial in Greater Manchester found that drivers were 65% more likely to follow the Highway Code and give way to pedestrians at side roads where zebra crossings were installed compared to those without.

Researchers found that if 20,000 side road zebras were installed across Greater Manchester, they would prevent approximately three deaths, 42 serious injuries and 233 minor collisions every year.

Polling carried out for Living Streets by YouGov in 2021 found that 83% of UK adults feel more confident crossing a road with a zebra crossing, and that 76% of parents would be more likely to walk their children to school if there were side road zebras in place along the route.