Jaywalking

Or if you're me, J walking.

For those of you who don't know what jay walking is:

Jaywalking is illegal or reckless pedestrian crossing of a roadway. Examples include a pedestrian crossing between intersections without yielding to drivers and starting to cross a crosswalk at a signalized intersection without waiting for a permissive indication to be displayed.

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I was actually going over this in my Urban Life class (yay for paying attention), and I was pretty surprised about how different places dealt with jaywalking. Here in New York City, jaywalking is illegal, but people do it all. The. Time. The red lights/dont walk signs don't mean crap; if there are no cars coming, you cross the street. A good method for weeding out those poor tourists who wait at the corner for the red light to change and inadvertently clog the corners.

Then there's the cases where people cross in the middle of the street cause the corner is too mainstream for them. I do that all the time. =P

So how about you? How's jaywalking in your city/town, and how would you react to a place like New York, or perhaps Seattle, where everyone waits for the green light apparently. Do you think it's a law that should be enforced, or are impatient New Yorkers right to cross when they can?

Don't think I've ever heard of anybody being so much as cited for jaywalking around here. The roads are pretty dead except for lunch time and 4-5 PM so crossing is far from dangerous. Swear to god the traffic lights along the highway that my community is on are biased towards the one at the entrance because it seems like the entire flow of traffic is altered so we'd be able to get in and out with no problem at all. I could moonwalk clear across the highway with no worries because chances are everybody's tied up at other lights.

I definitely think it should be enforced. When I'm driving I can't turn wherever I want or go through intersections whenever I feel like it, so why should pedestrians. The law is there for a reason, so people don't get injured or killed crossing the street.

I have almost no choice but to jaywalk because there are no pedestrian signs at two of the most trafficked lights; and this is a very busy street at all times! It's crazy. And then there is a crosswalk about 10 minutes (drive) away and beyond at the not-so-busy intersections.

The lack of crossing signs within walking distance has shaped me into jaywalking to evade drivers who do not yield to pedestrians when turning and my lack of knowing when to cross without one. I cross the middle of the street rather than the corners to avoid it, and one time a police car passed right by while I was stuck in the middle without a second glance. I think they understand and don't typically care around here. Never had a problem.

This really isn't an issue where I live for some reason and I don't think I have ever actually seen someone jaywalk. However, if I walked to places more I would probably do this because I am a very impatient person who wouldn't want to wait.

Jaywalking doesn't even exist in England (Not sure about London though) but here, we cross the road when we want to and if we get ran over, it's the driver who would normally be prosecuted for it.

I see people jaywalk all the time in my area, simply due to impatience. But for me, I will never jaywalk at all because for one, I do have patience to wait, and I prefer to follow the laws of my country so that I don't lose any money for making a stupid mistake.

There aren't that many pedestrians around where I am most of the time, but on the busier streets people do wait for lights and crosswalks most of the time.

Then there are times I go to San Francisco where people don't seem to realize the roads are not extra large sidewalks.

It should be enforced if something happens, but otherwise probably the only thing that should be done is to scare little kids so they don't do it.

If I get stopped by a cop
"Sorry Officer I didn't know I couldn't do that."
It's quite normal to cross at a red light. or across a BLVD

I honestly feel bad for the cars driving in Ann Arbor. People just cross the street whenever they want, wherever they want. Obviously if a mass of people are crossing though, I might as well too haha. Still, there's so much traffic due to pedestrians, it's ridiculous.

Jaywalking is just a way of life in a big city; you cross the street in the first gap in traffic without waiting for the signal because no one has the time to wait.

As for me, I live in such a small town that often people cross when they want, where they want. In more built-up areas nearby, people cross at actual crosswalks, and traffic usually stops for anyone waiting (since most of them aren't at lights).

Apparently it is in my state... Dang, for two years in a row I jaywalked to get to my bus stop.

Didn't know I was breaking a law.

_ANDY_ said:

I definitely think it should be enforced. When I'm driving I can't turn wherever I want or go through intersections whenever I feel like it, so why should pedestrians. The law is there for a reason, so people don't get injured or killed crossing the street.

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I agree completely, J walking is dangerous and can get you killed. It has happened quite a lot where I live, mostly from people crossing the middle of the street WHILE TEXTING. Or accidents caused by drivers who are TEXTING.
what's also extremely dangerous that I see a lot of people do around here is walking or riding a bike at night on narrow roads and think that they are completely visible. My grandma almost hit a guy with her car ounce from this, he was walking at night with dark cloths on an you couldn't see him until you were right up on him.

Maybe it's cause I'm so used to it, but jaywalking, imo, isn't a big deal. People here seem extremely accustomed to it, and truth be told, I don't think I've ever heard of an accident that specifically involved jaywalking.

I really hate when people jaywalk, especially when my light turns green. In my mind: "If I have to wait [as a driver] for the green light so should you". The one thing that gets me really irritated is when the peds stand when the light is green to talk with someone else, as soon as the light turns yellow they start crossing, many times I think they do that on purpose.

I seen many times people almost getting hit by cars because of Jaywalking [or make that Jayrunning] run in front of traffic trying to cross. I hear on the news a lot of people dying because of jaywalking. To be honest, I almost hit 4 pedestrians this year that way - they just run intro traffic without looking.

By the way, I don't 'jaywalk' I wait for the green light

Jaywalking in incredibly common in my country. People don't actually give a damn about the walk signal - they just cross the streets whenever there are no vehicles in sight. Of course, there are those sensible individuals who value their lives that wait patiently for the walk signal to turn green. I happen to be one of those individuals after being shaped by the stricter jaywalking rules of Australia, but once in a while there comes a point when the traffic lights malfunction or stay green for too long, then...look left, right, left again, RUN.

Triforce said:

Jaywalking doesn't even exist in England (Not sure about London though) but here, we cross the road when we want to and if we get ran over, it's the driver who would normally be prosecuted for it.

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Yep, I'm usually impatient because I hate waiting for every car to pass, sometimes I'll try and get over in one piece, even risking myself in the process.

Jaywalking laws are entirely unnecessary and entirely unenforceable. Carelessness should certainly be discouraged, but we all can say that about everything in our lives anyway.

Yeah, I just run across the street.
Almost got hit one time, but slide across the hood. 'Cause I'm ice.