We investigate the effects of cross-diffusion on propagating waves in an activator-inhibitor system. The model consists of a piecewise linear approximation of FitzHugh-Nagumo kinetics and a cross-diffusion term for either the activator or the inhibitor. We obtain exact analytic solutions for traveling fronts and solitary pulses and discuss the corresponding speed diagrams. A detailed comparison with the corresponding Rinzel-Keller model for the usually studied case of self-diffusion is performed.