This week New York City Council passed legislation to legalize crossing the street outside of a crosswalk or using the crosswalk against the light, legitimizing an already quite common practice among New Yorkers. Because of the prolific practice of so-called jaywalking in the city, police have largely discontinued the practice of issuing tickets to the jays, or so they would have you believe. Across 2023, Council Member Mercedes Narcisse noted, over 90 percent of jaywalking citations were issued to Black and Latino community members.
“Let’s be real, every New Yorker jaywalks. People are simply trying to get where they need to go,” she commented in an emailed statement to ABC News. “Laws that penalize common behaviors for everyday movement shouldn’t exist, especially when they unfairly impact communities of color.”
Just over 100 years ago you would typically find significantly more people walking in city streets than driving. Before cars were quite as prolific as they are today public streets were, well, public. Horses and early automobiles weren’t fast enough to be a danger to the people who used streets as walking and cycling thoroughfares.
As motor car speeds increased automobile companies were pressured by citizens to install governors to limit speeds to 20 or 30 miles per hour. American automakers set about on a campaign to stigmatize pedestrians using the street as they had for decades prior. The auto lobby invented the term “jaywalker” as a way to turn public opinion against their fellow pedestrians. At the time a jay was colloquial slang for an uneducated person from the country, who might not be wise to the ways of the big city. Aww shucks.
The new law stops short of returning the streets to pedestrians, as it warns that pedestrians crossing outside of a crosswalk or against the light do not have the right of way. Cars are still multi-ton projectiles capable of speeds that will turn a human body into paste, and it is important to give way to them when they come screaming through. A spokesperson for the highly troubled office of the Mayor has added that people choosing to cross mid-block may be financially liable for car crashes caused as a result.
