Jaywalking is as American as apple pie. But it’s technically illegal in Massachusetts, where violations can lead to a one dollar fine.
“Why even have it on the books?” asked Brendan Kearney as he stood at a busy intersection along Milk Street in downtown Boston.
Kearney is the co-executive director of the pedestrian group Walk Massachusetts. He’s among a growing number of advocates across the United States calling for an end to regulations that restrict when and where a person may cross a street.
Several cities and states — including Denver, California, Virginia and Nevada — have decriminalized jaywalking in recent years. Last month, New York City joined the list. City councilors and other supporters of the change said it was necessary because police there disproportionately ticketed Black and Latino residents.
Kearney, who resides in Framingham, worries that Massachusetts’ law could also be used to target certain communities. “Some of my fellow residents on the South Side [of Framingham] that are not white, they might get stopped,” he said. “So I really don’t think we should have it on the books at all.”
But many traffic safety experts say the concept of jaywalking is baked into the American psyche, and the country has a more than century-long history of putting cars over people that needs to change, in addition to laws.
“It begins with the word ‘jay,’ which was Midwestern U.S. slang for somebody from the country who didn’t know the ways of the city,” said Peter Norton, an historian at the University of Virginia and author of the book “Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City.”
According to Norton, just as “jay” was becoming a popular diss in the Midwest, automobiles were becoming a thing. So two new words emerged: jaydrivers, to describe people who were bad behind the wheel; and jaywalkers, to describe pedestrians who got in the way of cars.
“But there were people who were interested in promoting the idea of jaywalking, and they’re the ones who really got that word going,” Norton added.
Those people, he said, were car dealers, manufacturers and auto clubs. They passed laws, and launched massive PR campaigns that lasted for decades. In 1970s New York City,
a televised public safety announcement burned the slogan “Cross at the green, not in between” into the brains of a generation of New Yorkers. But that didn’t stop them from crossing when — and where — they wanted.
Examples in other places
“People are jaywalking every day. This is New York City after all,” said New York City Council Member Mercedes Narcisse.
Narcisse co-sponsored the bill to do away with jaywalking rules in her city. Now that the measure is law, she said the next step is to launch a new sort of PR campaign — this time, educating people on how to cross the street safely on their own terms.
“We want people to understand, when you’re walking, you have to pay attention to the traffic,” she said.
There are a few examples the U.S. can turn to, such as the United Kingdom, where people can and do cross where they want and cars are expected to slow down; or Germany, where jaywalking is culturally taboo, leading pedestrians to generally wait for the light, even when there are no cars.
Perhaps the best place to look for actual improvements to pedestrian safety is the Netherlands. In the 1970s, the Dutch were headed down the same path as the U.S., according to retired Dutch traffic engineer Jan Ploeger. But amid a spike in traffic deaths, Ploeger and other advocates pushed for major changes, including lower speed limits, car-restricted city centers and separate paths and crossings that have made the concept of jaywalking unnecessary.
“Pedestrian safety has improved considerably,” Ploeger said.
And he’s right: In 1972, traffic deaths in the Netherlands peaked at 3,267. Last year, even though the country’s population was way higher, the death toll was fewer than 700.
That illustrates a key piece of traffic safety, according to historian Peter Norton.
“The safer and more convenient you make walking, the safer the roads and the streets are for everybody, because that completely changes drivers’ behavior” he said. “Our problem in this country is that drivers barely even recognize that people ever walk, with the result that they go too fast and they don’t pay attention.”
Norton said that the recent law change in New York City is big, but it’s mostly symbolic. And undoing a century of American policy will take time.
Walk Massachusetts’ Brendan Kearney would like to see the commonwealth legalize jaywalking. But he said that’s not a priority in the legislature, where lawmakers have proposed increased fines for jaywalking in recent sessions. He’s hoping for funding for new pedestrian safety infrastructure and laws that actually make streets safer, like in the Netherlands.
“What we need the State House to be working on is increasing funding for local communities, so they can make changes to the streets,” Kearney said. “Stop focusing on jaywalking and start making our streets safer.”
Produced with assistance from the Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
