I'd argue it's time to redefine what jaywalking is then :)
Empty street? Cross it all you want, help that person from falling, it's not a criminal offense. And then the officer wouldn't have to forgive you or look away, but instead there was no law being broken.
It's pretty abhorrent that jaywalking is even considered a factor in the eyes of the law. What if you were senile or a child or blind or mentally unwell or intoxicated or running on little sleep, and just took a stumble onto the road? Suddenly your slaughter doesn't matter because you weren't walking on some white paint at the time? I think this needs to be changed.
I live in a place where Jaywalking is not a crime. If there is no crossing within 50m or so, it is fully legal to cross the street. The driving looks like this: you observe speed limits and you watch for pedestrians. If you see one about to cross, you stop.
The stories where someone crosses the street and is blamed for jaywalking, because there was crossing 2 miles away are completely bonkers to me.
If jaywalking is illegal then that person should be prosecuted for that. The rest is just an unfortunate accident (assuming that the driver was at the correct speed). It is horrible, but hardly evidence that strict regulation needs to be applied to pedestrians. This is a ridiculously unusual situation after all.
Note that jaywalking is very much not a crime in the UK. Off of a motorway (which is a relatively recent invention), roads are still for people to some extent. Hopping off the pavement for a couple of seconds to bypass someone who's decided to stop right in front of you is semi-normal, much of rural UK doesn't even have pavements, and we get taught how to Stop, Look, Listen, Live in order to cross a road without a traffic light as kids.
If a pedestrian starts to cross the road, they have right of way. I've been on roads in some city centres where vehicles have to be very, very careful as there's a road through a pedestrianised area and people are rather bold crossing the road. If the vehicle was to cause injury, the driver would likely be liable.
I am definitely not anti-car (I love cars and driving), but I don't agree that jaywalking laws make any kind of sense. as a driver, it's enough to be presumed not at fault for hitting a pedestrian that is behaving erratically. as a pedestrian, it's absurd not to be allowed to cross an empty street when convenient.
As far as I know, jaywalking is not a crime or a violation where I live. At least, no laws against it are ever enforced. It has never been a problem. Everyone just has to be observant and careful.
> If jaywalking was legal, the sacrifice is that we'd have to drive slower to watch for pedestrians.
There is a middle ground: the law could say that, while you can't get a ticket just for crossing a street outside the marked crosswalks, if you do cross that way and get hit by a car, the presumption is that you were at fault--whereas, if you get hit by a car while you are in the marked crosswalks, the presumption is that the driver of the car was at fault. That would basically reflect the same presumption that is in our current laws, but it would remove the excuse for cops to mess with people when they haven't caused any harm.
Note that "presumption" does not mean an automatic finding of fault; it just means that whoever is presumed to be at fault has the burden of establishing that they weren't, if they believe they weren't. That's a common situation in law.
In short, making jaywalking itself--crossing a street outside the marked crosswalks--illegal is not about safety at all; it's about local municipalities finding ways to shake down people for money. Just like most traffic laws.
Jaywalking is a crime for a reason, because it's potentially deadly to the pedestrian. It seems to be much worse in small/mid-size cities (probably because of less overall traffic). I've had people literally jog into my lane then walk the remaining 4 feet to the sidewalk while I slow from 35 to 10 to avoid hitting them. I think if half the cars on the road are autonomous and will just stop no matter what you will not see the decrease in pedestrian injuries and deaths some are expecting.
Empty street? Cross it all you want, help that person from falling, it's not a criminal offense. And then the officer wouldn't have to forgive you or look away, but instead there was no law being broken.
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