It’s a bit less straightforward than that. “Jaywalking” as a term is derogatory; you can look up the etymology, if it were invented today it would be called “s

It’s a bit less straightforward than that. “Jaywalking” as a term is derogatory; you can look up the etymology, if it were invented today it would be called “stupidwalking” or some such. It was pushed hard by car companies, and they lobbied to make cars the primary user of the road within cities. So a pedestrian choosing to cross would by default be in the wrong, unless in the “correct place”, instead of the opposite.