Jaywalking as a concept is so weird to me. Don't live in the US, that's probably why.
this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2025
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Jaywalking was a propaganda campaign created by the auto industry in the 1920s. You can read about it in the link below.
https://marker.medium.com/the-invention-of-jaywalking-afd48f994c05
Prior the 1920s streets were mainly for people on foot. Cars were though of as "secondary" and pedestrians had the right of way on streets.
The auto industry saw this as a challenge, because without roadways to use, or parking to park, cars themselves become useless and difficult to use as a means of getting around a city.
A typical busy city street.
Streets are destinations. Roads are throughways
It depends on if kids are around to me.
Just adults out at night or middle of nowhere? Jay walk away
Middle of the day and kids can potentially watch you walk out randomly in the middle of the street? I will find that cross walk everytime.
Be a good example
Be a good example
To me this is what counts more then anything when it comes to being a pedestrian in busy road with high speed traffic. especially in densely populated areas where kids are used to playing on roads and alleys with low traffic. First kids are worse at estimating risks, second they are less aware of their surroundings and third they are harder to spot by drivers. It's important people are mindful of the message they could give by walking through a red light or cross the street somewhere you're officially not allowed.
This. I don't care what you do yourself, but I see people pushing strollers and dragging small children across 5 lanes of traffic when there is a crosswalk 100m away. Yeah, fuck crazy but that shit is super cringe as well. Especially considering it's an area where a handful of people end up getting hit each year doing the same thing.
As an south east asian, the term "jaywalk" is such a foreign concept to me, that it only appear on TV show and movie. The only country in asean that fine jaywalker is Singapore, and it's a significantly walkable city. The rest? We're shit. In my country, it's only "illegal" to do so if there's a pedestrian bridge nearby, and you jump the fence. Otherwise? It's perfectly legally gray zone to play frogger. And we have to play frogger most of the time to get to the other side because the nearest pedestrian bridge might be 2, 5, and sometime 10km away. Zebra line? No one respect that, and no one will slow down from 80kmph to 0 to let anyone cross. So while jaywalking is legal, it's because the infrastructure is shit.
This post isn't entirely serious, but I do think people should jaywalk when appropriate.
I live in a dense city, use public transit to commute, walk to my bus or train. If I'm at a crosswalk and it's safe, I cross. No point in waiting when no one else is around.
I drive all day for my job. Cars suck, but I can’t do my job out of a train or off a bicycle. People regularly freak me out by being completely unpredictable when crossing the street and are often completely unaware of their surroundings. Of course there’s essentially no crosswalks in residential neighborhoods by me, so there’s not much of an alternative. Taking crosswalks if they’re nearby and waiting your turn can be a minor convenience, but it’s still much safer.
Eh. I expect other people to follow traffic rules in principle, so I will too, even if they're a bit dumb sometimes.