<story><title>Automakers invented the crime of jaywalking (2015)</title><url>https://www.vox.com/2015/1/15/7551873/jaywalking-history</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>trothamel</author><text>Note that like most laws, Jaywalking laws tend to make more sense when you read them. Here&amp;#x27;s the law in New York:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;law.justia.com&amp;#x2F;codes&amp;#x2F;new-york&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;vat&amp;#x2F;title-7&amp;#x2F;article-27&amp;#x2F;1152&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;law.justia.com&amp;#x2F;codes&amp;#x2F;new-york&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;vat&amp;#x2F;title-7&amp;#x2F;artic...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  1152. Crossing  at  other  than  crosswalks.

  (a) Every pedestrian
  crossing a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk  or
  within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right of
  way to all vehicles upon the roadway.

  (b) Any  pedestrian  crossing a roadway at a point where a pedestrian
  tunnel or overhead pedestrian crossing has been provided shall yield the
  right of way to all vehicles upon the roadway.

  (c) No pedestrian shall cross a roadway intersection diagonally unless 
  authorized by official traffic-control devices; and, when authorized  to
  cross  diagonally,  pedestrians  shall cross only in accordance with the
  official traffic-control devices pertaining to such crossing movements.
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
So what&amp;#x27;s criminalized isn&amp;#x27;t crossing the road - it&amp;#x27;s crossing without checking. Which seems like a good idea to me. Looking on the other side of the spectrum, Wyoming&amp;#x27;s law is:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  (a) Every pedestrian crossing a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway.

  (b) Any pedestrian crossing a roadway at a point where a pedestrian tunnel or overhead pedestrian crossing has been provided shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway.

  (c) Between adjacent intersections at which traffic-control signals are in operation pedestrians shall not cross at any place except in a marked crosswalk.

  (d) No pedestrian shall cross a roadway intersection diagonally unless authorized by official traffic-control devices.  When authorized to cross diagonally, pedestrians shall cross only in accordance with the official traffic-control devices pertaining to the crossing movements.
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
Which is similar, except for (c), which only matters when you&amp;#x27;re close to a crosswalk - and almost certainly, on a busy road.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>digital-cygnet</author><text>I think you&amp;#x27;ve misunderstood the law you&amp;#x27;ve quoted. It&amp;#x27;s not about &amp;quot;crossing without checking&amp;quot;, it&amp;#x27;s about the pedestrian &amp;quot;yield[ing] the right of way to all vehicles&amp;quot;.  It&amp;#x27;s hard to imagine from a modern perspective, but until laws like this were passed roads were not, as today, universally perceived as places for cars to drive.&lt;p&gt;In cities in much of the developing world the pre-jaywalking regime remains: road users with cars, carts, bikes, trucks, or on foot instead are in a delicate and complex (and often dangerous) dance of theory-of-mind and courtesy (or a game of chicken, depending).&lt;p&gt;The &amp;quot;right-of-way&amp;quot; dominated way of thinking about roads is hard to argue with when you look at most roadways in the developed world (cars zooming around on multiple lanes with few pedestrians in sight).  But the idea that every pedestrian must yield right of way to every car is much more questionable in dense cities like NYC, on small, residential streets, where one car trying to go from point A to point C is effectively given total preference over all the people trying to live their lives (and cross the street) in B.</text></comment>
<story><title>Automakers invented the crime of jaywalking (2015)</title><url>https://www.vox.com/2015/1/15/7551873/jaywalking-history</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>trothamel</author><text>Note that like most laws, Jaywalking laws tend to make more sense when you read them. Here&amp;#x27;s the law in New York:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;law.justia.com&amp;#x2F;codes&amp;#x2F;new-york&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;vat&amp;#x2F;title-7&amp;#x2F;article-27&amp;#x2F;1152&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;law.justia.com&amp;#x2F;codes&amp;#x2F;new-york&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;vat&amp;#x2F;title-7&amp;#x2F;artic...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  1152. Crossing  at  other  than  crosswalks.

  (a) Every pedestrian
  crossing a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk  or
  within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right of
  way to all vehicles upon the roadway.

  (b) Any  pedestrian  crossing a roadway at a point where a pedestrian
  tunnel or overhead pedestrian crossing has been provided shall yield the
  right of way to all vehicles upon the roadway.

  (c) No pedestrian shall cross a roadway intersection diagonally unless 
  authorized by official traffic-control devices; and, when authorized  to
  cross  diagonally,  pedestrians  shall cross only in accordance with the
  official traffic-control devices pertaining to such crossing movements.
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
So what&amp;#x27;s criminalized isn&amp;#x27;t crossing the road - it&amp;#x27;s crossing without checking. Which seems like a good idea to me. Looking on the other side of the spectrum, Wyoming&amp;#x27;s law is:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  (a) Every pedestrian crossing a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway.

  (b) Any pedestrian crossing a roadway at a point where a pedestrian tunnel or overhead pedestrian crossing has been provided shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway.

  (c) Between adjacent intersections at which traffic-control signals are in operation pedestrians shall not cross at any place except in a marked crosswalk.

  (d) No pedestrian shall cross a roadway intersection diagonally unless authorized by official traffic-control devices.  When authorized to cross diagonally, pedestrians shall cross only in accordance with the official traffic-control devices pertaining to the crossing movements.
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
Which is similar, except for (c), which only matters when you&amp;#x27;re close to a crosswalk - and almost certainly, on a busy road.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kasey_junk</author><text>Jaywalking laws, independent of how they are implemented only make sense if you start from a prior that the roads are specifically for vehicular use snd it’s pedestrians that are making exceptional use of them.&lt;p&gt;The article is pointing out that belief was a specific policy choice driven at least in part by automakers.</text></comment>