The Redhunter

tom--Jaywalking is rampant you're right. I have not observed any one group breaking the law tho. People then complain about how bad the traffic is, they can't even cross the street! "We need to have more pedestrian-friendly streets." Often it is families all strung out or maybe a mother with a couple of kids. The crosswalk or intersection could be close by too.
The solution is to have fences along all the sidewalks with cutouts only where people have the right to cross. But that is unsightly and not practical.
In DC a jaywalker was recently ticketed. He had been hit by a car when jaywalking. He died later and of course the police got a bad rap.
People have to take more responsibility and practice what they preach to their children--cross at an intersection, look both ways, look both ways again, then cross.
-ma

Well Tom, we may not have Jaywalked a lot as kids, but we sure played a lot of street football! Bro

Around here, it's the kids and usually just around the high school. I don't see it too much anywhere else.

In Chicago it is not considered sporting to cross the street with the light in your favor. Cross walks are for sissies.

I'd say those attitudes have recieved wider distribution.

I've had the exact same observation here in Southern California. I think with the Hispanics it's mostly a cultural issue, since in Mexico the traffic laws seem to be very different, or at least they are in TJ.

It is often safer to cross the street as a "jaywalker" than to use a designated cross walk at a street corner. I often cross in the middle of Maple Ave. in Vienna, VA and usually when I do I feel safer. Allow me to explain.

I only "jaywalk" when traffic has been halted by stoplights, and when most vehicles in the immediate vicinity are stopped. Any of the few vehicles in motion are easily seen and avoided.

Crossing at an designated crosswalk is too often a dangerous proposition. Drivers making turns at crosswalks typically are only concerned with vehicular traffic, and often do not look for pedestrians at all. A driver seeking to make a right hand turn usually only looks to their left to see if cars are approaching before turning. That pedestrian to the driver's right who has just begun to cross the street in the crosswalk is typically not seen until after the driver has begun their forward motion and is turning right into the path of the pedestrian.

That's why I tend to want to cross in the middle of the street as opposed to using the crosswalk when I can do so in safety. I have come far closer to being run over while using crosswalks than when using the middle of the street, and for exactly the reason stated above.

Thank you for your reasoned comment, P.Zake (btw, I know how you got to this site). You make some interesting points. I too have noticed that drivers don't necessarily watch for people in crosswalks, which is why I always look around to make sure the drivers are really going to stop. And as a driver I always watch for pedestrians. And I suppose it matters where you jaywalk as to the level of danger. Certainly some streets are more dangerous than others.

However, if everyone only crossed in the crosswalk, and if all drivers paid attention like they're supposed to, pedestrian fatalities would certainly be lower.

Further, we should all obey the law. We shouldn't rationalize jaywalking any more than anything else. Surely I am not perfect (being a sinner like everyone else), but I was raised by parents to instilled in me the idea that you don't cross in the middle of the street, period.