HALLIE EPHRON: When I was growing up in Los Angeles, you could get ticketed for crossing the street in the middle of the block, and it could be a long walk to a crosswalk in a community defined by the automobile.
If you were a good girl like me and you reached the corner and the light was red, you waited. And waited. Crossing against a red light just wasn’t done. And woe be to you if you wore white or black patent leather in the winter. Never mind that winter feels a lot like summer in Los Angeles.
When I arrived at college in Manhattan, I was completely nonplussed by the way people just darted across the street mid-block or in the face of a DON’T WALK light.
Recently I took heart, reading that jaywalking is no longer illegal in California. Gov. Gavin Newsome recently signed a bill that, starting in January 2023, Californians can cross the street where they choose, if they can cross safely.
Things do drift in the direction of sensible occasionally. Though often it’s with laws (no smoking; pooper scooper…) that tighten rather than loosen the rules.
Is jaywalking legal in your neighborhood? Is public sentiment finally starting to favor the pedestrian over the driver? And what do you think, is life getting more regimented or less?
LUCY BURDETTE: I mostly follow those rules. But I have to say, the tourists in Key West PAY NO ATTENTION TO ANY RULES, including red lights and one-way streets. It bothers me because it’s dangerous (annoying, too, if you’re the one driving.) We have a lot of pedestrian and bicycle accidents.
I don’t mind rules that keep us safe because otherwise people act in crazy ways. (I surely told you about the time I was pulled over by two KW police WHEN I WAS ON MY BIKE! Apparently, I’d run a stop sign. I got off with a stern warning LOL.
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I am so guilty of it, and it all depends on how quickly I need to get somewhere, I guess It’s so much safer! . My husband is an inveterate jaywalker, he'll just go whenever he wants to go, and I have to admit it kind of drives me crazy. My conscience tells me to go to the crosswalk, and really, it's not that much more difficult.
I remember being in Rome, where crossing the street was beyond treacherous... it was like pedestrians would wait until there was critical mass, and then face the oncoming hordes of crazed drivers, and then just... go. Like: here we come, you can’t possibly kill us all.
There's a great story about when Dwight Eisenhower was president of Columbia University, and he would leave the school late at night, and someone said that he would, even if there was no traffic whatsoever, go to the corner and wait for the light. Now that’s discipline.
When I am driving, or even a passenger, I will admit I shriek at jaywalkers. It is just so dangerous from the inside the car point of view! Everybody thinks everybody can stop and will stop, and... they just won't, sometimes.
Or can’t.
The whole thing is lawless now, anyway. Speed limits? Ha. So jaywalking, for which there are reasons for the rule, I agree, Lucy, seems laughable.
JENN McKINLAY: I remember taking the Hub to Boston just after we were married. He was aghast that people would jaywalk and cars would honk and the people didn’t care. He thought it was mayhem!
Phoenix downtown is not huge and the light rail goes right through it so we don’t see a lot of jaywalkers unless they’re racing to the platform.
I’m a jaywalker. I admit it. Places to go, people to see, and whatnot. Sorry not sorry.
RHYS BOWEN: I lived in Central London, behind Oxford Circus, when I worked for the BBC so I was an expert jaywalker. I was used to crossing between buses and taxis. So New York has never been a problem for me. I find it comes back quite quickly when I’m in either city although I have to admit that I am more hesitant to jaywalk in London these days as the traffic is crazy.
It’s a cultural thing. I was once on a book tour in Minneapolis. They flew me in on Sunday. I went for a walk downtown. Not a car in sight. The whole place was dead, except for one elderly couple who stood at the curb waiting for the sign to change to WALK.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: Jaywalking is actually against the law in Texas, although I don't know how often that law is enforced. We're not a very pedestrian society unless you're in city centers. It is, however, dangerous even in the suburbs, as I can personally testify.
When I was fourteen I crossed a main street outside of a controlled intersection and was struck by a car. Spent a month in the hospital with a broken pelvis and head injuries, and I was lucky it wasn't worse.
It was kind of a freak accident, but to this day I'm very careful crossing streets. Jaywalking is NOT illegal in the UK, but even at the zebra (special pedestrian) crossings, I make sure that the traffic is really going to stop.
HALLIE: My goodness... Debs, that is a cautionary tale. Like when your grandmother tells you not to cross your eyes because they'll stay that way. Then you do. And they do.
So what do you think about jaywalking? Is it legal in your part of the world or a ticketing offense and do you toe the line(s)?
