I jaywalk. I expect most people do — the world is cut by too many roads to only cross at the intersection, with the light (or WALK signal).
But, like speeding, or other minor infractions of the vehicle code and law, there are jaywalkers and there are jaywalkers. There are those who are impatient, and those who are rude, and those who are just idiots — and those, of course, who are all three.
So, for no reason whatsoever, here are the rules I’ve tried to develop for myself. Or, rather, questions I try to mentally run through beefore I step off the curb.
- Am you being stupid? By jaywalking, you’re being stupid, since you are putting yourself in harm’s way. Cars can always plough through red lights, too. But face it — you know when you’re doing something stupid, nine times out of ten. Trust those feelings. Because there’s a little stupid, and then there’s a lot stupid. The latter tends to translate, eventually, to dead.
It’s safer, btw, to cross at an intersection, even if not with the light. Drivers are used to paying more attention at intersections, and there’s usually some sort of quasi-safe spot within the crosswalk or in the center divider. But it’s still always at least a little stupid. Don’t be too stupid. Which leads up to …
- Are you taking an unnecessary chance? Most people jaywalk because they are impatient, not because it’s an emergency. Fact is, you might add no more than five or ten minutes to your walk, if that, if you take the safe, legal route. So beyond the basic chance you’re taking, consider this: Is being killed or crippled by a car is worth it if you don’t have to wait for the light to change? Do you want your family to deal with that? Or the driver that hits you? Or do you want to deal with the consequences if a driver careens out of control trying to avoid hitting you?
If not, then reconsider your action. Or hang on there for another thirty seconds, until that speeding semi goes past.
- Are you factoring in delays? “Oh, I can get across the street before that car gets here!” Sure, you probably can. Unless you trip. Or slip. Or drop your cell phone, or something in your pocket falls out to the ground. Will that make you hesitate? Stop? Try to run back and recover your PalmPilot? What happens to your safety margin then?
- Do you know the signals and traffic flow? Much of jaywalking depends on knowing how the cars come through, knowing when it’s red there that it’s green there, and the next signal change will mean a green arrow there, and a red there. Do you know the flow on this street your crossing, or this intersection? Are you sure? Has it changed with that construction they just started? Are you sure?
Jaywalking means actually paying more attention to other cars and obstacles, rather than less. It means you can’t be lazy. It means you can’t assume people will stop. It means you need to know where every car is that could reach you, when they’ll reach you, and how to avoid it. Don’t do it if you want to just read a book while you stroll.
- Are you making the drivers nervous? Don’t. Don’t do anything that makes drivers nervous. If a driver has to slow down to avoid hitting you, you’ve not only offended the driver, but you’ve increased the risk of something going Badly Wrong. Nervous drivers make mistakes. They punch the accelerator, thinking they can get past you before you’re in the way. They swerve, thinking they’re going to hit you. They pay attention to you, rather than to the other cars (and pedestrians). Believe me, you do not want to cause an accident just so that you could get to lunch two minutes sooner.
At the one intersection where I don’t always cross with the light, I will not step off the curb if I can see a car coming toward me (I have about a block of visibility in either direction). Because if I can see them, then they can see me, and that’s going to make them nervous.
Violating traffic ordinances when nobody’s around is between you and your conscience. Doing it when it impacts someone else’s drive is impolite at best, hazardous at worst. Don’t do it.
- Are you ready to take it like a man? If the cops spot you and give you a ticket for jaywalking, suck it up. Be polite and contrite. Don’t make excuses. Do apologize. Don’t shout about how everyone does it, and why don’t they go and catch some terrorists instead. You did the crime, now do the (money=) time.
Following the above rules won’t keep Something Bad from happening. We’re all human. You’ll glance around, not see anybody, step off the curb, and suddenly a car you didn’t notice will turn onto the street, or stand on the brakes, or something like that. If you’re lucky, the only lasting impact will be a brief adrenaline high and a resolve not to pull a stunt like that again. If you’re lucky.
Don’t know if these are helpful, or even interesting, but I’ve been thinking about them for a while. Maybe something for me to consider even more than I have.
you are right. jaywalking is a stupid and unnessecary risk.
Jaywalkers are stupid.
I hate it when I see parents teaching their kids to jaywalk across Main Street! Teach them to be careful, not to take unnecessary risks, please!
Of course, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stopped at a crosswalk to let a pedestrian cross, only to have the guy behind me swerve into the other lane and blow through the intersection at 50 mph, missing the pedestrian by a handsbreadth. Why did they think I had come to a full stop, just to delay them? Geez!
Jaywalking is not something I do in front of Katherine.
I’m sure she’ll do it sooner or later (eek!), but right now I’m trying to drum in the lessons of Look-Listen-Look Again, Dammit!. When I think she’s of an age to make an intelligent and judged decision about it, I’ll introduce her to the nuances above.
Have we become so lazy that taking two minutes out of our time to push a crosswalk button (paid for with our tax dollars might i add) isnt worth it anymore? I have seen more jaywalkers than i have crosswalkers. ITs bad enough that they are crossing where they shouldnt. But know they also have the audacity to saunter when they should be walking swiftly. Plus consider this: Do you really think that if you are hit by a car, that not being in the crosswalk at the time it happened is really going to help you? You will end up paying them for hitting you!!! Have some common sense people
Is this a joke? I can’t believe that somebody wasted this much time to get his message out about something as stupid as this.
Well, it got you to “waste” the time to go to it, read it, and comment on it …
Long ago, I read an interesting statistic. I think it was in the LA Times, but I can’t be sure. It said that in LA County more Jaywalking tickets were issued than in any State in the union except California.
I think the really-stupid variety of Jaywalking is the same kind of phenomenon as tailgaiting. Both involve an extreme form of impatience and the implicit belief that nothing anyone else is doing matters, the time and convenience of the jaywalker/tailgaiter is of supreme importance. It’s a kind of antisocial selfishness.
The most exreme case I’ve ever seen was just a few days ago. A woman just HAD to cross the street about 20 feet from a stoplight with a crosswalk, and she did it just as I was approaching, in such a way that I felt obliged to stop 50 feet short of the crosswalk for her to cross. She wanted me to continue on so she could cross behind me. I wanted her to cross in front of me where I could see her. The light was red, so she clearly hadn’t paid any attention to the crosswalk or the fact that she could have crossed more safely and more rapidly in the crosswalk.
There are circumstances where jaywalking is justified and safe, and I don’t mean to criticize those who jaywalk in a rational, safety-conscious, and intelligent way. I do it myself. But I definitely think people need to be more patient and more willing to take a few extra steps and a few extra seconds to do the safe and predictable thing rather than the unpredictable and self-centered thing.
I live in Denmark (which is a country in Europe – And yes, we DO support the invasion/liberation of iraq and YES we have danish troops in Iraq.) And in Denmark the closest thing you come to laws outlawing jaywalking is a law that says that if you are within 15 meters (49 ft.) And honestly I don’t think anyone gives a s**t… So I am forced to think that if you use your brain (or whatever you got stuffed into your head) you will be safe… Like in France where it’s legal to cross the street even though it’s read! Under the circumstance you do it when there’s no cars… And it’s working, it’s simply a matter of getting used to use your brain… liberty under responibiliity…
Hi
what has jaywalking got to do with liberation/occupation of Iraq?
I guess you are one those kinds, who drop lines like…remember the CK loafers I lost while saving an egg of an alligator….why don’t u go and lay an egg too, somewhere in Iraq and then guard it with a tank or something, just in case someone tries to jaywalk on it….by the way, I live in Dubai and people do get hit here coz of jaywalking and I guess jaywalking is by no means a necessity we can’t do without. If breaking rules is something we love, sometimes those rules are meant to protect your precious little life.
Hmm, I’m in the midst of writing a piece about jaywalking, and I was just wondering whether the animosity shown here toward it is simply an embodiment of American “car-culture”. Developers are buliding suburbs these days without sidewalks, let alone pedestrian crossings. Quite often, walking to an intersection isn’t a reasonable option for those of us who use public transport.
Oh, and btw, any comparison with tailgating is at best specious since one instance deals with two heavy metal objects travelling at speed in close proximity, while the other involves a slow-moving, soft pulpy mass.
All the best.
My comparison of jaywalking to tailgaiting was about the psychological origin of both practices, and had nothing to do with the relative dangers of the two practices. I grant that tailgaiting is far more dangerous to others than jaywalking. That doesn’t show that the two don’t have similar psychological profiles.
Public transport use is a red herring. Jaywalkers are pedestrians. Whether they used a car or a bus to get to that point is not relevant.
I think most comments above in which jaywalking was criticised distinguished between reasonable jaywalking and unreasonable jaywalking. Only ***Dave clearly set out his criteria for reasonableness, the rest of us are all going on an “I know it when I see it” kind of model. I think the general consensus is that reasonable jaywalking involves a higher level of concern for safety than many jaywalkers that I have seen seem to demonstrate.
I live in the south suburban area of Chicago. When I drive my girlfriend to work (via RT.1) , I am constantly having to deal with people jaywalking where there is an immense amount of traffic. The trip to the place where she works and the trip home, on average I will see about 4 or 5 people cross the street in the middle of heavy traffic putting their lives at risk. Here are three occasions that I have had to cope with two people putting their lives at severe risk (within one week.)
1. At a bad intersection (yes where there is a crosswalk) and there are two lanes and including a turn lane in evey direction, a woman had decided to start her way across the road from the center median during a green light against the direction she walking in. She just stood there in traffic between the turn lane and the inner second lane as cars past her. As a cautious driver, this had made me feel very uneasy about the situation of having to drive past her as she just stood there.
2. A little further south from the same section, another woman was jaywalking across the street to get to the other side to meet up with her family/friends. She was doing this activity as traffic was approaching. Still being the same 2 lane road, with a vehicle in parallel to mine on the outer lane. I saw the woman finish her adventure across the street and saw her just stand there in the edge of the lane and saw the car next to me stop 6 or 7 feet before her as its occupant got upset and slammed his hand onto the horn. The woman just turned and glared at him as she walked onto the sidewalk to be with the rest of her associates and the driver that stopped was able to go on through.
3. Its 7 am in morning and I am driving back from dropping off my girlfriend at work. Four children approximately under the of 8 are running across the four lane road approximately 200 feet ahead of me in a diagonal manner, with cars approaching in both directions.
It appears to me in the area that I live in people no longer care about using you head about when it comes to dealing with the proper way of crossing a road, and on a daily basis around here, its not getting better its getting worse.
A pity, that. Though using one’s head rarely seems to be in fashion …
Jaywalking is a crime in your country?? HaaaHaaaaahaaa… Not in Norway!
Yeah, but on the other hand, not much lutefisk consumed here, either. So it’s probably a wash.
The Czechs, in particular, seem to dislike jaywalking .
Hello Dave, I`m trying to do a petition against jaywalking here in the uk. Its amazing how many ignorant people there are in this country. I`m trying to do this to protect our drivers and pedestrians,i find that the drivers of today, have to many laws, and none for the pedestrians. I`m trying to find the American law on jaywalking and don`t know what to look under.Any help would be appreciated.
Generally speaking, Lauraine, it’s a local (municipal) law, not state or federal. Well, the larger entities probably have laws on the books for jaywalking on state or federal highways.
Try this .
I jaywalked, and got caught, and I am now disenchanted with the Tempe, Arizona police. I do think they are overstaffed and unnecessarily forceful in dealing with minor infractions. I have seen motorcycle cops (always at least two) sitting at a corner by a dormitory across from campus writing tickets for bicyclists who ride on the left side of the road. Admittedly, if you’re on a bicycle, it’s a minor annoyance to have to accommodate bicycles moving in the opposite direction, but I see no other reason why there is a law against it and especially why the police need to enforce it.
I am one of those people [Libertarian-esque] who thinks the police exist to fight crime and serve the people, not harrass poor (no money) college kids for what is basically a non-offense.
In my case, I jaywalked near midnight on a road with good visibility (from the outside to the inside of a bend) that was empty aside from one car that was passing as I began to cross. That car happened to be a squad car, a fact I realized too late. The penalty? A $110 fine that I really do not have the money to pay for.
To add insult to injury, the officers (three of them were present to handle this infraction) felt it was necessary to behave as if they were being featured on COPS. I, being nervous, was stuttering. They, being dicks, began accusing me of drinking. They wanted me to sign the citation they had filled out, but became angry when I reached for the clipboard and forbid me from touching it. The result: a sloppy signature.
I call this blatant exploitation of an unwelcome demographic. One of the council members of our city hall called Arizona State University students “transients” and accused us of, to paraphrase, being a blight upon his beautiful city. Never mind that the student population supports most businesses in the area, many of which close during the summer and winter breaks for lack of traffic.
The point is, jaywalking isn’t evil and you guys are narrow-minded bigots for saying it is. Walking out in front of moving vehicles is stupid, and blocking traffic is rude. But crossing a road where and when it’s most convenient for both cars and pedestrians is logical.
I’m sure you’ll admit that language is not perfect, and many ideas can only be roughly approximated by even the most eloquent writers. I put forth, then, that the spirit of the law should supercede the letter of the law, rather than letter of the law being used less-than-honorably, for example, by setting traffic violation quotas for officers to fill.
… jaywalking isn’t evil and you guys are narrow-minded bigots for saying it is. …
Jaywalking, per se, is not evil, but it can be. Making a choice of convenience that becomes a cause in an accident (even if only you yourself are injured) is evil. Willfully causing distress in others (e.g., a driver who has to worry about that they might be about to hit you) is also arguably evil.
Of course, we commit little evils every day (and, yes, rudeness, whether from a jaywalker or a copy, qualifies). But we should be honest enough to recognize that and attempt to avoid it when we can.
Well Tim, you sure win big debating points with me by calling me a narrow-minded biggot. …. NOT!
Tim, I suggest that you consider taking a class on Critical Reasoning. It’s probably offered by the philosophy department at your university. It will do you much good, in particular it will help you avoid the ad hominem fallacy which you used above. It might also help you to learn to read more carefully and generally be a better thinker. In other words, you’ll do better in your other classes after having taken it.
BTW, the law against riding your bike on the wrong side of the street is not intended to prevent a “minor annoyance”. It’s intended to promote safety for the cyclist and for the automobile drivers who are trying to use the same street. Drivers don’t generally look for cyclists going the wrong way down the street, and that’s one of the most dangerous things a cyclist can do.
if you are driving on a city street you are taking the responsibility of sharing your environment with pedestrians in addition to other automobile traffic. just like other automobiles, pedestrians can and will do unpredictable things. in a head on collision, an automobile will win every time. with this great power comes a greater responsibility. remember this and drive safely, or i’ll come back and kill every last one of you motherfu*kers.
While some municipalities assert that pedestrians always have the right of way, and certainly car drivers should be aware of pedestrians and other things, jay-walking, particularly as it comes as a surprise or irregular activity, is generally initiated by the jay-walker, making that person the primary decision-maker.
Drivers have a responsibility to be aware of and react to their environment. Pedestrians have (at least) a responsibility not to complicate that environment unduly.
jaywalking laws are paternal laws, jaywalking is not inherently evil, wrong or sinful in any respect, ergo jaywalking is deemed unlawful only to discourage the practice for its risk in safety, similar to seat-belt laws. driving carelessly or in an inattentive manner (a potentially deadly instrument), however is at least a reprehensible act if not an evil one.
indications of greater responsibility of automobile operators include, but are not limited to: mandatory insurance, age requirements, vehicle inspections, liscensing, etc.
i don’t want to argue that jaywalkers are universally immune to making a bad/wrong decision. every situation demands individual evaluation, but poor performance behind the wheel should never be granted impunity on condition of jaywalking.
All things being equal, someone who steps out in front of a car in the middle of the block has a heck of a lot more responsibility for an ensuing collision than the driver of the car on the street. IMO.
Since it didn’t trackback/ping properly, there’s a reference to this article here.
Let me get this right… Its illegal to cross the road in the us except at a crossing?? Is this just main roads? a certain number of lanes?
You surely cant be serious! you guys dont consider yourselves responsible enough to make the decision as to whether or not its safe to cross a road? No,I cant believe that people could be such a set of babies!!!
Have some self respect…Please tell me i’ve got it wrong!
I guess to jaywalk much, I’d have to walk places a lot more than I do. It’s just so much more convenient where I live to drive everywhere.
My Blog
In most communities in the US, it is considered a traffic offense, subject to ticketing and fine, to cross at other than a designated crosswalk (most of which are at intersections), to cross at an intersection where it is explicitly signed not to be crossed, or to cross against the crossing signal (or, lacking a crossing signal, to cross on red). I think that covers all the cases.
That said, the enforcement of such laws varies with the community and police, and the adherence to such laws varies widely by community as well. And, of course, there’s functional boundaries on the law — the number of lanes (and whether lanes are marked or not) and the speed limit on the road affect whether doing the above is considered jaywalking by most — crossing the residential street in front of my house wouldn’t be, but crossing the six lane boulevard outside my office would be.
Interestingly enough, in at least some states (California, for one), the pedestrian is always considered to have the right of way. So you can be committing a traffic violation (jaywalking), but have the right of way over someone (a motorist) who is not committing a traffic offense.
There’s an interesting commentary on the international aspects of jaywalking here. It makes it clear that different societies have very different perceptions of what’s allowable and what’s not, with or without laws to match.
While it’s amusing to discuss the philosphical merits of jaywalking, there’s a human toll as well. Between between 1975 and 2001, nearly 175,000 pedestrians died in the US, 78% outside of intersections.
Anyway …
Huh — look at that. This post comes up as #6 on Google if you search on “jaywalking.”
I J-Walk safely.
http://j-walkblog.com/blog/
Which fine blog I cited up about four comments earlier. 🙂
The Fort Collins City code made some things clear to me that I now realize I did not understand fully:
803. Crossing at other than crosswalks
In particular, it explains when one must use a crosswalk in Fort Collins (when the nearest intersections to your left and right both have traffic signals), and it says that in Fort Collins one must yield right of way to a vehicle whenever one is crossing outside a crosswalk. I think part of my problem with those who I think are unsafe jaywalkers is that pedestrians’ actions do not always indicate clearly what they are doing. A pedestrian may intend to yield the right of way, but their actions can be ambiguous in a way that suggests that they do not intend to yield the right of way. So I guess I regard jaywalking partly as a problem of communication. In the absence of the ability for pedestrians and drivers to communicate clearly, I think some clearly standardized behavior is required.
And in response to Rose, who appears to suggest that drivers are always responsible for vehcle-pedestrian collisions, I suggest that one consider the extreme case. Imagine that a pedestrian steps quickly out into a street from behind a shrub or some other object. Imagine that a law-abiding and attentive driver is so close that a collision cannot be avoided in spite of the driver’s quick and strong application of the brakes. Imagine further that the pedestrian goes through the windshield of the car, and both pedestrian and driver are injured. Is the driver responsible for this collision? It seems to me that one cannot put all the responsibility for safety on the driver. Pedestrians have responsibility for safely as well. It’s not just a “bad decision” on the part of the pedestrian, it’s just as much a breach of responsibility toward others as speeding or (to return to an example I used earlier) tailgaiting.
The communication issue is part of (or vice-versa) of “Are you making the drivers nervous?”
As to the rest, I think it is fair for drivers to presume that pedestrians will not step out into traffic, requiring them to swerve or apply brakes. They should be prepared for it, but need not presume it.
Jaywalking can be a pointless risk to the pedestrian. However, I live in an area directly next to a college university where it is a waste of time to walk ten to fifteen minutes out of the way to use a crosswalk when it is just as safe to wait for a break in traffic to cross. One cannot merely reduce the act of crossing the street in an undesignated area as “stupid” or that person runs the risk of self-incrimination of the latter.
i need some help, my brother just hit a jaywalker this morning. does that meen he will get punished or will the jaywalker???
I am so not a lawyer. As a semi-educated layman, I don’t know how to balance the “pedestrians have the right of way” rule with “folks who step off into traffic have to bear some responsibility for acting like idiots” guideline.
Regardless of the criminal aspects, there’s nothing to say that said jaywalker can’t try to sue the snot out of your brother, in which case all bets as to how a jury will decide it are off.
Anonimous – your brother didn’t hit the jaywalker the jaywalker hit him. Two jaywalkers hit me a few weeks ago. Broke my mirror and passanger window. Bummer is I now have to pay for their mistake and let the insurance “hopefully” get my money back. Hope your brother’s jaywalker got a ticket as mine did. Over $100 fine for each. Thought they could save five minutes crossing on a busy street. They lost 45 minutes and $200. I lost a whole day from stress and $250.
hey wat if thers no cars coming. both street lights r red and u get a ticket. can u help me.
I would say that falls under #6 above …
I’m amazed at how much life this post has had, 2 years and 3 months after it was posted.
There’s a handful of posts like that. The USBank one (and the series as a whole) is another.
If you don’t like jaywalkers, please close your eyes when you come to Massachusetts, most of us jaywalk, not to be stupid, impatient or anything.
Um, closing your eyes while there are a lot of jaywalkers around is probably not a good idea — particularly if you’re driving.
My son hit a lady as he was turning left (he was at a stop sign then turned left and out of nowhere this lady stepped out in the street.
She was crossing 10 feet from a crosswalk but he is young (18) and 4 witnesses say the lady step out and 2 witnesses say she flew from the crosswalk Yet he was only doing 7-10 miles an hour.
Now they dont know how she is she was hospitalized and in critical contition.
Has this degenerated society reached a point where everybody believes no human being can descide on her/his own if to cross a street where ever he/she want’s to or not??? Where is your brain? Or are you all too lazy to make a descision (hmm, is this car too close or not? Tough one) and rather let the gouvernment do it for you, so the responsibility is taken awy and you don’t have to think? Elsewhere in the world you like to call this Communism or dictatorship… and then you bomb the shit out of these people. (And there is the connection to the danish comment for you, Cajun, that you asked for. But he meant something different, that you did’t get…). Wonder why on one on this planet likes americans? Go figure!
Poor America, sleep well!
I’m an avid Jaywalker and proud of it, I say people should be allowed to cross anywhere they want, its up to them to know if its safe to cross or not.
Anyone hear about the cop that got his ass beat for giving someone a jaywalking ticket ? Thats the kind of justice only America can deliver.
I think people need to be allowed to make decisions right or wrong that’s what liberty is, besides the only reason jaywalking is a illegal is so to the city can steal more money from you.
Hmmm. Is it still jaywalking if there’s a big “Troll Crossing” sign there?
Quote [Tim]: “The point is, jaywalking isn’t evil and you guys are narrow-minded bigots for saying it is. Walking out in front of moving vehicles is stupid, and blocking traffic is rude. But crossing a road where and when it’s most convenient for both cars and pedestrians is logical.”
TOTALLY AGREE!!!
I have been crossing illegally, or so called “Jaywalking” in my state forever. (Oklahoma) I plan on doing so for a long time as well. I have yet to been ticketed and yet I do so everyday. It takes twice the amount of time to walk to the crosswalk and back to cross illegally than it is to “jaywalk” (I have timed myself and others for a research assignment for 4 months) I don’t really see the need to have a law against it, I feel that it is up to the walker to decide the safety, and if he or she get’s hurt, it’s their fault for not looking before they cross the street! Isn’t it how we were taught? We were not taught of crossing at the “crosswalk” but just to “look both ways before crossing”
Crossing the street away from a designated pedestrian crossing is actually illegal in America?
I thought that was just a myth perpetrated by people that want to make America look bad.
Does that apply to quiet residential streets aswell? Cul-de-sacs, etc?
If not then where does the law draw the line? What about a quiet mixed-use residential/office street?
I’m not sure if there’s a legal threshold for street size, busy-ness, or what. And it’s generally law set by local municipalities, vs. a state or federal thing. As well, in most areas it’s one of those laws basically only enforced against (a) egregious offenders, or (b) someone the local cops want to hassle. Though I’ve worked in cities (Pasadena comes to mind) where the cops were notorious about it, esp. on the major boulevards (where, in fact, it did create something of a traffic and personal safety hazard).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaywalking has more on laws in different places. Per it, it’s not just the US but Canada, too, with different rules applying elsewhere.
Living in Norway, I was surprised to find that people are actually penalized for walking across the street.
Here, we value the freedom of movement highly, and the freedom to walk anywhere that is not considered intimately private is considered paramount. Owned wilderness, city streets, it matters little – unless it’s fenced in, or has a sign saying “No walking here”, it is legal to walk there. It might be possible to be given a fine for obstructing traffic if you’re bloody dumb enough to walk around in the middle of a busy street, and it is generally acknowledged that pedestrians = soft and squishy, cars = high impact velocity with metal frontside, so pedestrians generally are careful enough to avoid dangerous situations. It’s common sense to be aware of the traffic.
However, should a car hit a pedestrian – and it’s defined as the car doing the hitting unless it is standing still – then the driver is *always* responsible. *ALWAYS*. Even if there’s a red light for crossing the street, and a pedestrian walks out right in front of a car. In that case, the mitigating circumstances would be taken into account, and the driver would have his or her sentence mildened, but will still be responsible, and will be charged with manslaughter through negligence. Needless to say, should it be found that the car was speeding, that would be considered a very much more serious aggravating circumstance than the jaywalking, and *might* increase the charge to manslaughter through gross negligence. There is, of course, the matter of judgment – even if a speeding car hits a pedestrian crossing at a designated crossing with a green signal, the driver can be acquitted should extraordinary circumstances be present.
This is considered the natural order of things; a driver has, at his or her disposal, a metric tonne of metal capable of moving at speeds in excess of 100km/h. The pedestrian usually has, at theirs, between 40 and 130 kilograms, moving at up to around 20km/h. The attendant potential for destruction in the first case comes with a great deal more responsibility for one’s conduct than the relatively harmless second case.
But that doesn’t relieve you, the pedestrian, of the responsibility of thinking. Use your mind and your common sense. There can be no excuses for not doing this, whatsoever. If you act stupidly and end up overrun and crippled, it is your fault, not the driver’s; likewise, if a driver acts stupidly and cripples you, you have to live with it, even though it was their fault.
Just remember the cardinal rule of traffic: Everybody else is a mindless idiot, and will do the stupidest possible thing at the stupidest possible time. Act accordingly.
That’s a pretty darned good rule to live by (literally).
I am here to say she broke no laws……
When a street is obstructed and there is no trough traffic? There is no jaywalking to be violated. Is it police policy or prejudice or prejudice built into police policy in the state of Arizona. We all know Arizona is not an even playing field!! Just look at the number of African Americans in there jail system to their population of the state ? The State of Arizona has a disease of “Not justice but Just us”
Remember the African American man who was arrested in Arizona for DUI with a blood alcohol level of .000 not because of law but racial profiling ?