The Rolling Stones, miniskirts, Harry Potter and fish and chips are only a few of Britain's sensationally popular exports. But perhaps the most impactful of all gets the least recognition, despite having been right under our feet the whole time. Enter: the zebra crossing.
Launched 75 years ago today directly in front of a bustling Boots store in Slough, the simple white-paint design paired with two blinking Belisha beacons helped to drastically cut spiralling pedestrian deaths, after wartime blackouts and a subsequent postwar lifting of petrol rationing sent a flurry of drivers fatally hurtling onto the roads. At the worst fatality peak in 1940, there was one death for every 200 pedestrians; today, that figure has decreased a hundredfold.
