5 ms·

Remember that the US has a thousand different sets of laws. Jaywalking is not enforced in small towns.

by smackfu 12y ago

snorkel 12y ago
It varies by city in the US: * Seattle: Pedestrians don't even jaywalk on empty streets at 1AM * Manhattan: Jaywalk at your own risk * Boston: Everyone jaywalks all of the time, everywhere. Pedestrians cross streets anywhere at free random and do not acknowledge the existence of motor vehicles.
- saraid216 12y ago
  > * Seattle: Pedestrians don't even jaywalk on empty streets at 1AM What? Yes I do.
  - RyJones 12y ago
    Let him be provincial. I work downtown Seattle and see people jaywalking all the time
- afterburner 12y ago
  This has always amazed me about Boston. The image burned in my mind from my one visit there years ago was of a very elderly woman with a hunched back simply crossing the street, as you say almost "at random", and without acknowledging the "existence of motor vehicles". There was a wall of traffic incoming from a fresh green light, but she aimed at a store across the street and just started walking diagonally towards it, not looking either way, and without even a pause for consideration. The traffic simply stopped and waited as she slowly crossed; no-one honked. In Manhattan I have a different memory, of masses of people stubbornly crossing against the red, right at the crosswalk, while a taxi slowly tried pushing its way into the sea of pedestrians. But I don't blame them because in NYC every. single. god. damn. intersection has a traffic light. I guess they thought Stop signs weren't good enough. Or even just right of way.
- mindslight 12y ago
  > Boston ... do not acknowledge the existence of motor vehicles I presume you haven't spent much time in Boston? There's a constant dialog that goes on between pedestrians, cars, bikes, etc where for any situation everybody judges each others' velocity, figures out the obvious ordering, and then executes on that plan. When there's a conflict, the party that's already behind generally delays themselves slightly and that's that. It's the people that don't understand this give-and-take that tend to cause problems. To me, that seems a lot more reasonable that eg SoCal where if I'm planning on walking behind a car in a neighborhood or parking lot, most of the time they'll slam on their brakes and wave me on as if they're doing me a favor by getting in my way.
sliverstorm 12y ago
Degree of enforcement also seems to be very much subject to officer discretion. I've never met anyone ticketed for jaywalking an empty 2-lane street at night, but if you dash across a busy thoroughfare right in front of oncoming traffic you are much more liable to get ticketed.
kazinator 12y ago
Oh, if y' ain't from that town and y' look like the troublemakin' sort, the sheriff will swoop in like a hawk and getcha, after one teensy J walkin' step. It don't matter if you look real careful ever' which way before doin' it. He's got his eyes on you.

Remember that the US has a thousand different sets of laws. Jaywalking is not enforced in small towns.

by smackfu 12y ago

Remember that the US has a thousand different sets of laws. Jaywalking is not enforced in small towns.

It varies by city in the US: * Seattle: Pedestrians don't even jaywalk on empty streets at 1AM * Manhattan: Jaywalk at your own risk * Boston: Everyone jaywalks all of the time, everywhere. Pedestrians cross streets anywhere at free random and do not acknowledge the existence of motor vehicles.

saraid216 12y ago
> * Seattle: Pedestrians don't even jaywalk on empty streets at 1AM What? Yes I do.
- RyJones 12y ago
  Let him be provincial. I work downtown Seattle and see people jaywalking all the time
afterburner 12y ago
This has always amazed me about Boston. The image burned in my mind from my one visit there years ago was of a very elderly woman with a hunched back simply crossing the street, as you say almost "at random", and without acknowledging the "existence of motor vehicles". There was a wall of traffic incoming from a fresh green light, but she aimed at a store across the street and just started walking diagonally towards it, not looking either way, and without even a pause for consideration. The traffic simply stopped and waited as she slowly crossed; no-one honked. In Manhattan I have a different memory, of masses of people stubbornly crossing against the red, right at the crosswalk, while a taxi slowly tried pushing its way into the sea of pedestrians. But I don't blame them because in NYC every. single. god. damn. intersection has a traffic light. I guess they thought Stop signs weren't good enough. Or even just right of way.
mindslight 12y ago
> Boston ... do not acknowledge the existence of motor vehicles I presume you haven't spent much time in Boston? There's a constant dialog that goes on between pedestrians, cars, bikes, etc where for any situation everybody judges each others' velocity, figures out the obvious ordering, and then executes on that plan. When there's a conflict, the party that's already behind generally delays themselves slightly and that's that. It's the people that don't understand this give-and-take that tend to cause problems. To me, that seems a lot more reasonable that eg SoCal where if I'm planning on walking behind a car in a neighborhood or parking lot, most of the time they'll slam on their brakes and wave me on as if they're doing me a favor by getting in my way.

sliverstorm 12y ago

Degree of enforcement also seems to be very much subject to officer discretion. I've never met anyone ticketed for jaywalking an empty 2-lane street at night, but if you dash across a busy thoroughfare right in front of oncoming traffic you are much more liable to get ticketed.

kazinator 12y ago

Oh, if y' ain't from that town and y' look like the troublemakin' sort, the sheriff will swoop in like a hawk and getcha, after one teensy J walkin' step. It don't matter if you look real careful ever' which way before doin' it. He's got his eyes on you.