Jaywalking : Classic or Dud

Have yet to be busted or otherwise troubled by it. However, crossing the street at the nearest major intersection -- a three-way set-up -- necessitates jaywalking, as there is neither light nor crossing marks. This might not be a problem except for the annoying record of fatal and otherwise car accidents.

I heard so many horror stories about jaywalking busts in LA from my New York friends before I moved here, but I've never had any trouble. I guess I've been extra careful. I think it mainly happens in touristy areas, they have sting operations set up outside of Graumann's Chinese Theatre, places like that.

New York friends acting like you're crazy waiting for the walk sign to come on at LA streetcorners=dud. Walking anyway anyhow anywhere I choose in New York=classic.

I'm glad we in the UK are free to endanger our lives wherever we like. Less power to cars! Reclaim the streets!

I just calculated that I jaywalk about 10 times per day.

dud. it's dangerous and disruptive. I can see jay-walking on a really long block with no crosswalks and little traffic, but crossing against the light, or sprinting across a busy multi-lane road, or crossing between stopped cars or whatever, are all dud.

I hate it. It just reeks of entitlement and arrogance. It's putting your narrow interests over the common good. It results in a very marginal gain with a significant risk (getting hit by a car). The motivation is often basic laziness or misguided hubris. BAH!

/rant

Oh goody, now we can do this all afternoon!!

i hate jaywalking valets sprinting across busy hollywood streets.

I make it a point never to interfere w/traffic (i.e., make someone brake) and I mostly do it downtown where the streets are narrow or in my hood which has light traffic at best. SF is an excellent jaywalking city for the experienced.

http://ww1.prweb.com/prfiles/2008/01/30/216015/JayLeno.jpg

^^DUD

lol hueg

there are plenty of opportunities to jaywalk without fucking with anything or anybody. i can negotiate crossing a freaking street without the aid of a crosswalk.

Saw a guy get hit by a car last week. He was jaywalking.

serves him right!

There's this spot where tons of students going to the University jaywalk everyday. At certain times of the day (rush hour, lunctime) the traffic is really heavy but a lot of students still don't pay any attention as they cross the street. they usually make it across the first two lanes and then wind up standing in the turn lane waiting for the traffic on the other side to pass.

There really ought to be a pedestrian bridge or tunnel at the spot, I guess.
Anyway, I still jaywalk there sometimes, but I also realize when I should just take the five extra minutes and walk to the crosswalk so I don't have to stand in the street waiting for the traffic to advance.

I live in Seattle, where the civic culture seems to frown on jaywalking. People pool at crosswalks to wait for the approving hand even when there's no visible traffic. I find it disgusting. I've also lived in NYC, where people know better.

In general, jaywalking = classic. Jaywalking in even moderate traffic, however, usually = dud. It's one thing to make reasonable decisions for yourself, quite another to fuck everything up for everyone else.

there are plenty of opportunities to jaywalk without fucking with anything or anybody. i can negotiate crossing a freaking street without the aid of a crosswalk.

yes. there is reckless wading out into traffic, and there is sensible "there are no cars, fuck waiting at the light like a dummy" jaywalking

I think downtown Seattle took the offensive against jaywalking a while back, tho? I've been told stories of police cars waiting on hills (where they're less visible) to watch for drunk people jaywalking across empty intersections at night. Pretty much just as a ticket-giving maneuver.

There are supposedly 30 jaywalking stings planned for Seattle through the end of the year. I'm less likely to hyperventilate these days if the people I'm walking with jaywalk, but I absolutely hate doing it. Possibly because a car in front of me hit and killed a little girl at a crosswalk (on the west side of Indianapolis, 25 years ago, but things like that stay with you), but maybe because I'm OCD about law-abidingness.

Being uptight about jaywalking totally fits my sense of what Seattle is like.

It was interesting to find out that in Las Vegas anyone hit while jaywalking is automatically at fault while the driver is absolved. A cab driver mentioned this (as he gunned it toward a pile of scurrying pedestrians) so I checked into it.

Being uptight about jaywalking totally fits my sense of what Seattle is like.

― buzza

Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes. Yes. I mean, shit yes.

but maybe because I'm OCD about law-abidingness.

Law-abidingness is relative to me. If people jaywalk in a community and neither they nor the cops fret about it, unless you're a tool about it, then I will study how they do it and follow suit. If they're not cool with it, I won't. No-one here much cares.

in Las Vegas anyone hit while jaywalking is automatically at fault

What a stupid law. Are there really no exceptions for reckless driving, drunk driving, homicidal driving, excessive speed, inattention?

maybe this should only count on Las Vegas Blvd where you can walk around with drinks.

no exceptions for reckless driving, drunk driving, homicidal driving, excessive speed, inattention?

Those are separately ticketed on the driver. The jaywalker is still penalized regardless.

If people jaywalk in a community and neither they nor the cops fret about it ... then I will study how they do it and follow suit. If they're not cool with it, I won't.

― Michael White

This is undoubtedly the healthiest attitude to take. While my jaywalking in a non-jaywalking city probably bespeaks an antisocial personality disorder of some kind. Especially given that I've been ticketed for it... Still, I yam what I yam, and cannot control the contempt I feel for corner-herders.

Why does it matter to you if others choose not to jaywalk? It's not like they're impeding you. In fact, their choice allows you to feel smug and superior, so what's the problem?

If I did not see their choice as a defect, I would not be able to feel smug about my own superiority. Don't you see?

In the center of downtown SF, the streets are all one way, alternating southbound, northbound and westbound, eastbound. When I leave work, I walk southbound on the west side of Montgomery Street. At any given green light one of the crosswalks in the direction of traffic, will have a 'Don't Walk' sign so that cars can make a turn off of Montgomery, if westbound the western crosswalk will have a green light for traffic and a 'Don't Walk' for pedestrians. To compensate the pedestrians, before the cross traffic is allowed its turn, the whole intersection is red for cars and 'Walk' for people on foot.

The penultimate street I cross before I get to the train is Sutter, a westbound street which, at its inception, has relatively light traffic. I feel justified in jaywalking when the light is red (turns off of Montgomery in this area are prohibited during red lights) and there's no traffic coming up Sutter than when the light is green for cars but not for pedestrians, since I would be impeding the right-turn traffic. There are those who obviously don't care/don't give it that much thought but it's not the law that I care about so much in this case as its purpose.

Don't you see?

Sure, it's win-win obv.