Green Cross Code: five steps, and how to practise
The Green Cross Code is rule 7 of the Highway Code. It’s five steps, lettered A to E, and it’s written for everyone, not just for children.
The five steps
A — First find a safe place to cross, somewhere with room to get onto the pavement on the other side. If there’s a crossing nearby, use it: a subway, a footbridge, an island, or a zebra, pelican, toucan or puffin crossing. If there isn’t, pick a spot where you can see clearly in every direction. Don’t cross between parked cars, on a blind bend, or near the top of a hill. Don’t cross diagonally.
B — Stop just before you get to the kerb, where you can see what’s coming without being close enough to the traffic for that to be a problem.
C — Look all around for traffic, and listen. Traffic can come from any direction, and you can often hear it before you see it.
D — If traffic is coming, let it pass. Then look all around again, and listen again. Don’t cross until there’s a safe gap and you’re sure you have plenty of time.
E — When it’s safe, go straight across, and don’t run. Keep looking and listening the whole way, in case something you didn’t see turns up. Watch for cyclists and motorcyclists coming between lanes.
What each step is really for
The Code reads like a list. It’s actually four different mistakes it’s trying to stop, and knowing which is which is what makes it stick.
“Just before the kerb”, not at it. Step B is about seeing more without putting yourself in more danger. Standing back a step from a row of parked cars is the difference between seeing the road and seeing a van. Rule 4 says the same about pushchairs: don’t push the buggy out into the road to check whether it’s clear.
Listening matters. Step C names it on its own because sound comes round corners and sight doesn’t. It’s also the step headphones delete.
The second look is the real one. Step D asks you to look, wait, then look again, because a check goes out of date. The road you checked five seconds ago is not the road in front of you now, and nearly every near miss at a kerb is somebody acting on an old look.
“Don’t run” is about your eyes, not your legs. Running gets you across faster and makes everything else worse, because it stops you looking. Step E asks you to keep looking and listening while you cross, and you can’t do that at a sprint. It’s also why the Code says go straight across: a diagonal takes longer and points your face away from the lane you’re about to walk into.
When a child is ready to use it alone
Rule 7 is unusually direct about this. Children should be taught the Code, and shouldn’t be allowed out alone until they can understand and use it properly. When that happens is different for every child. The Highway Code leaves the decision with the parent or carer, not with a birthday.
It also says why: many children can’t judge how fast vehicles are going, or how far away they are. That’s about how children see, not about carelessness, and reciting the Code doesn’t fix it. It’s the thing to practise.
And one line worth saying to yourself rather than to them: children learn by copying, so use the Code properly when you’re out with them. Crossing on a diagonal with a five-year-old in tow teaches the diagonal.
The hard part is judging the gap
Steps A, B, C and E are a routine, and a routine can be taught in an afternoon. Step D is judgement, and judgement takes practice. You have to be wrong about a gap enough times to get a feel for what a real one looks like.
That’s exactly the practice you can’t safely get at an actual kerb.
Practise the Code somewhere a mistake costs nothing
Swivelhead is a free crossing-the-road game built around this problem. You stand at the kerb and turn your head yourself — a swipe on a phone, the mouse on a computer — so step C is something you physically do rather than something you tick off. A quick flick doesn’t count as a look, and a look goes out of date after a few seconds — which is step D turned into a rule.
What it marks you on lines up with the Code: did you look, was the gap real, did you walk, did you keep looking. The gap is the important one. Step into one that was never big enough and it counts against you even if nothing happened — because “I made it” is exactly the thinking that gets people hurt the time it doesn’t work.
Nothing is ever shown. Mistime a crossing and there’s a screech, a white flash, and you’re back on the kerb reading a line about what to do differently. No account, no chat, nothing to buy, nothing to install. It runs on a school laptop or a tablet.
It’s practice, not a replacement for walking a real route with a child.
If you want the crossing types themselves, we have a guide to UK crossing types covering pelican, puffin, toucan and zebra. When they’re ready for the other seat, Wheelabout is the same roads from behind the wheel.