Thursday, November 6, 2008

Bandung's Zebra Crossing



We all know what zebra crossing is and why it is named after that horse-like, native African animal. What most of us don't probably know is when and how this sign for pedestrian crossing began.

According to wikipedia, zebra crossing was first used in the United Kingdom (UK) in 1949. Originally, the stripes of the zebra crossing were not white as we now know but alternating stips of blue and yellow.

This true-to-name zebra crossing may not be the first in the world, but I personally think that, considering the name, this is what zebra crossing should look like.

I took this photo on Jalan Dipatiukur (Dipatiukur Street) at Dago, Bandung. This zebra-"zebra crossing" was painted by an artist to go with a sculpture that was put in place as part of the celebration of Bandung Creative City (BCC) project.

For your information, Bandung was named and chosen as East Asia's pilot project of crative city at an international conference of world cities with creative-industry economy at Yokohama, Japan, in July this year. The choice was made because Bandung was considered as a regional trend-setter in this kind of industry. In the past ten years, Bandung's creative industry products have set the trends among millions of young people in many other cities in the region.

15 comments:

rob said...

Very funny zebra crossing! I like how you framed them! Ciao.

Dina said...

Great zebra idea! And great to encourage the creativity in the city. Congratulations to Bandung.

Unknown said...

Haha..this is very creative.Perhap this is the only zebra crossing of this design.Very creative idea..nice isn't it...

Rambling Woods said...

We don't have anything like that here..Just a plain old cross-walk...

Virginia said...

Well hope those darn zebras how and when to cross. No foolishness now!!!!

Hilda said...

I'd rather have these that the regular straight stripes!

Anonymous said...

Fortunately, the name was not "cheetah cross" . Hahahaa. There would be a lot of polkadot in the street.

USelaine said...

I love this entire photo composition! You have made new art from old art - all the angled lines and shades of dark to light, and the many patterns and textures. Really fine work.

Anonymous said...

Wow! The zebra crossing really looks amazing! We have the crossing here too but its' the usual black-white strap.

tr3nta said...

now that's a zebra crossing and the rest are b... :-)

Livio Bonino said...

Fantastic zebra crossing indeed

Unknown said...

THAT is a zebra crossing, no doubt! I've never seen one before.

Jane Hards Photography said...

It definitely resembles the Zebra more than our UK uniform ones do. I can honestly say I have never seen a
crossing like this before.

My life in bergen said...

One of the best ideas i seen for crossovers for a long long time.
In fact the only other idea I've seen :-)

escape said...

very very cool! how i wish someboday will do the same here in the philippines. havent seen one yet!