A crosswalk is a marked path across a street where pedestrians are supposed to cross safely. You've seen them: white stripes painted on the pavement, sometimes with signs and flashing lights nearby. When you're walking to school or crossing a busy street downtown, the crosswalk shows drivers where to expect people crossing and shows you where it's safest to go.

Crosswalks give pedestrians the right of way, meaning cars are supposed to stop and let you cross. Some crosswalks have buttons you can press to trigger flashing lights or change traffic signals. Others just have painted lines.

In some places, people call them pedestrian crossings or zebra crossings (because the white stripes look like a zebra's pattern). Before crosswalks were invented in the early 1900s, crossing busy streets was genuinely dangerous. Now they're so common you might not think about them, but they're an example of how cities design streets to help keep everyone safer.