To celebrate the achievements and contributions of women to London on International Women’s Day, Transport for London (TfL) has installed new ‘green woman’ traffic signals at more than 20 pedestrian crossings across the city.
From today, Londoners can see the specially designed symbols at pedestrian crossings on high streets in Dalston, Tooting, Clapham, Brixton, Tottenham and Lewisham and by King's Cross St. Pancras Tube station, as well as in Camden Town Centre, Hyde Park, the Southbank and along Exhibition Road in South Kensington.
The designs are inspired by the theme for International Women’s Day this year to challenge norms. They depict a diverse range of women and challenge the common image of a woman in a dress to signify gender. The reimagined symbols serve as a reminder of the huge contribution women make to all aspects of society, including the transport network, and improve the visibility of women on London’s streets.
The signals were produced for free by Siemens Mobility, who installed them alongside TfL’s partners, Telent and Cubic. The designs have been created in line with the safety features of the green man figure, ensuring pedestrians relying on the green signal to cross the road can still recognise the cue indicating it is safe to do so.
To ensure its workforce is representative of the diverse city that it serves, TfL is committed to inspiring more girls and women to consider a career in transport by actively encouraging more women applicants to its graduate schemes and apprenticeships. TfL is also supporting women’s progression into senior management roles by reviewing and improving the internal and external recruitment processes in place - such as the use of anonymised software to eliminate any unconscious bias - and focusing on career development opportunities and inclusive experiences in the workplace.
Felicity Luckett, TfL’s Asset Operations Performance Manager said: “We are excited to have created a set of new diverse green woman pedestrian crossings to mark International Women’s Day. It is important we commemorate the hard work, contributions and success of women across London every day and even more so on International Women’s Day. We hope that by increasing the visibility of women with these signals in public and shared spaces, Londoners will be reminded of the huge contributions of women.”