Jaywalking is the act of pedestrians walking in or crossing a roadway in a manner that contravenes traffic regulations. The term jay-walking originated in the United States as a derivation of the phrase jay-driver (the word jay meaning a greenhorn, or rube), referring to people who drove horse-drawn carriages and automobiles on the wrong side of the road. The term is not a historically neutral one.
The arrival of the automobile in the opening decades of the 20th century led to increasingly deadly conflicts in the street, and the public was generally unsympathetic to motorists or to early attempts to legislate pedestrian behavior. In response, the US automobile industry and associated organizations undertook public campaigns to frame pedestrians, newly impugned as jay-walkers, as a problematic element in the new automotive age. The first widely successful criminalization of jaywalking was enacted in Los Angeles in 1925, using legislation drafted by the auto lobby that inspired similar ordinances in other American cities.
Jaywalking laws vary widely by jurisdiction. In many countries, the word is not generally used and, with the exception of certain high-speed roads such as motorways, there are no laws limiting how pedestrians are allowed to cross public highways. Thus, globally speaking, legal texts use different concepts, one of which is Rules applicable to pedestrians, put forward by the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic. As an example of the subtleties and discrepancies of the laws governing pedestrian road traffic, even as a signing member of the Vienna convention, the United Kingdom does not have jaywalking laws: its Highway Code relies on the pedestrians making their own judgment on whether it is safe to cross based on the Green Cross Code. Some municipalities that previously criminalized jaywalking have legalized or decriminalized it.
Origin
While jaywalking is associated with pedestrians today, the earliest references to "jay" behavior in the street were about horse-drawn carriages and automobiles in 1905 Kansas: "jay drivers" who did not drive on the correct side of the street. The term swiftly expanded to pedestrians, and by 1909, The Chanute Daily Tribune warned "The jay walker needs attention as well as the jay driver, and is about as big a nuisance." No historical evidence supports an alternative folk etymology by which the word is traced to either the letter "J" (characterizing the route a jaywalker might follow), or "jake walk" (an early term related to a drunkard's walk).
The automobile lobby in the US took up the cause of labeling and scorning jaywalkers in the 1910s and early 1920s In 1912, for instance, Popular Mechanics magazine reported that the term was current in Kansas City: "The city pedestrian who cares not for traffic regulations at street corners, but strays all over the street, crossing in the middle of the block, or attempting to save time by choosing a diagonal route across a street intersection instead of adhering to the regular crossing, is designated as a 'jay walker,' in Kansas City."
In 1915, when New York City's police commissioner Arthur Woods sought to apply the word "jaywalker" to anyone who crossed the street at mid-block, the New York Times protested, calling it “highly opprobrious” and “a truly shocking name.”
The earliest citation in the Oxford English Dictionary dates to 1917. The word was promoted by the pro-automobile lobby in the 1920s, according to historian and alternative transportation advocate Peter D. Norton. Today, in the US, the word is often used synonymously with its current legal definition, crossing the street illegally.
Originally in the US, the legal rule was that "all persons have an equal right in the highway, and that in exercising the right each shall take due care not to injure other users of the way".Miller McClintock for the Chicago Association of Commerce, "Report and Recommendations of the Metropolitan Street Traffic Survey", p. 133, quoted by . In time, however, streets became the province of vehicular traffic, both practically and legally.
Causes
People jaywalk for various reasons, including convenience, the expectation of the right to free movement of individuals, and sometimes even personal safety, generally to cross the street. Going to a crosswalk can require a long detour.
Although cultural norms about jaywalking vary by locality, the practice cannot simply be explained by corresponding differences in law. For example, Copenhagen and New York City have historically had similar restrictions on jaywalking at signalised crosswalks, but the practice is far more common in New York.
Pedestrians are often forced to walk outside crosswalks when they are blocked by cars due to traffic congestion or drivers stopping too far forward. The common practice of car-centric traffic-signal synchronisation produces green waves for motorists but not necessarily for pedestrians, who may encounter little or no conflicting traffic at cross streets where signals instruct them to wait.
Pedestrians may dislike crossing at intersections for other reasons, such as discomfort dealing with traffic from several directions (whereas a jaywalker at a location distant from an intersection only needs to observe at most two directions of traffic), or wanting to avoid the extra air emissions generated by vehicles stopping and starting (given that vehicular emissions are significantly less when vehicles are moving at steady speeds). In rural and suburban areas, people may jaywalk due to a lack of sidewalks. Some pedestrians are unwilling to observe lengthy wait times at signals. They are also more likely to make "informal crossings" at wide roads, or at locations where formal crosswalks are too distant to be practical for them to use.
In an academic study focused on behaviour in Montreal and Quebec City, for individual behaviour, holding a smartphone in one's hand reduces the probability of crossing on red. In contrast, looking at traffic was "over four times more associated with crossing illegally" than being distracted by a phone.
Some crosswalk signals that require a pedestrian to push a button are unusable for orthodox Jews on the Shabbat.
Safety Unsignalised marked crosswalks where drivers are more likely to yield to pedestrians are not necessarily safer than their unmarked counterparts, where pedestrians behave more cautiously, not expecting motorists to yield.
Many American newspapers publish stories that are critical of pedestrian road users' safety practices, while police departments often instigate education and enforcement campaigns to curb jaywalking. While nearly 60% of American pedestrian deaths occur outside of crosswalks, fewer than 20% occur in close proximity to a crosswalk.
Legal view by jurisdiction When used in the technical sense, jaywalking specifically refers to violation of pedestrian traffic regulations and laws and is therefore illegal. In many countries, such regulations do not exist and jaywalking is an unknown concept.
Africa Zimbabwe In Zimbabwe, jaywalking is illegal, according to the traffic laws gazetted in 2013 by the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development. Disregarding designated crossing points or passing through red traffic lights carries a punishment of up to six months in jail or a 7,238.00 Zimbabwean Dollars fine (i.e. around $20), as part of the Highway Code. The code also deals with all road users; it used to emphasise rules for motorists and cyclists.
Asia
Mainland China
In recent years, jaywalking has become more strictly controlled in China as car traffic increased. Police have tested facial recognition to identify jaywalkers. The authorities applied a new method to deter jaywalkers by displaying their photo on large public screens in the area where the jaywalking occurred, to publicly shame any violator of pedestrian street rules. The system has flaws: the photo of the businesswoman Dong Mingzhu was displayed on those screens after the AI systems misinterpreted her appearance on a passing bus advertisement as a real person crossing the street in an illegal fashion.
Hong Kong In Hong Kong, it is an offence to cross roads within the zigzag area around zebra crossings, or within 15 metres (yards) of other crossing points (including signal-controlled crossings, footbridges and subways) without using the crossing, or climb over fences to cross the road.Cap 374G, Section 39 It is also an offence to cross the road at a signalled crossing when it is red.Cap 374G, Section 33(6), with penalty listed in Section 61(2)
Israel Israeli transit regulations section 110 states a person shall not cross a road unless they have checked to make sure it is safe to do so. Where there is a "nearby" pedestrian crossing, a pedestrian shall not cross the road except at the pedestrian crossing. Where there is no pedestrian crossing nearby but there is a "nearby" intersection, the pedestrian shall cross "near" the intersection. In any case, the pedestrian shall cross at a reasonable speed and in the shortest straight line across the road, without spending undue time on the road.
Israeli courts have ruled that the legislature left the term "nearby" deliberately vague and it must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
India In India, jaywalking is not explicitly included in the law as an offence but is covered under the broader term 'obstruction of traffic' in state and metropolitan laws. Examples include section 28B of the Delhi Police Act, 33B of the Bombay Police Act and 92G of the Karnataka Police Act.*
However, jaywalking is common in cities because of the lack of regulated crossings and footpaths, ignorance of safety rules, and the poor regulation of related laws by authorities. Drives against jaywalking are conducted by the police departments from time to time and offenders are given fines of 100 to 500 Indian rupees, depending upon the jurisdictions. Drivers must yield the right of way for pedestrians at unsignalled crossings and marked pedestrian crossings.
Iran In Iran, crossing outside crossing points within 150 metres (yards) of one or if the pedestrian light is red, as well as starting to cross when the light is flashing, has been prohibited since the 1970s. If in an intersection there is no pedestrian light, traffic lights would be considered and so it is illegal when it is red or orange. As of November, 2009, jaywalking carries fines from 300,000 up to 2,000,000 rials (US$9 to US$60). The law has almost never been enforced.
Philippines
In the Philippines, jaywalking is not illegal. The Land Transportation and Traffic Code, which was passed in 1964, states that within commercial or residential areas, drivers of vehicles must yield the right of way to pedestrians crossing public roads on pedestrian crossings, except when traffic movement is regulated by traffic enforcers. Likewise, pedestrians must yield their right of way to motor vehicles when crossing a public road at any point other than a pedestrian crossing. It is however, illegal to cross or traverse an expressway on foot based on the Revised Rules and Regulations Governing Limited Access Highways.
Local government units may explicitly prohibit jaywalking in their localities through local ordinances, such as Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Ordinance No. 1 series of 1995, which supplements city and municipal anti-jaywalking ordinances in Metro Manila on major roads. The ordinance prohibits crossing a street, thoroughfare, or highway outside of crosswalks (except crossing straight at an intersection corner) and crossing under a footbridge. It also prohibits crossing against traffic signals or hand signals of traffic enforcers and walking outside sidewalks in a manner that obstructs, inconveniences, or prevents free passage of vehicles.