The Criminal Act We Call Jaywalking: Part One of Two
Tags: Auto-Centric, Car-Centric, Christopher Hume, David Owen, Fighting Traffic, Green Metropolis, Jaywalk, pedestrian, Peter D. Norton, Safe Streets, The Heart of Our Cities, Tom Vanderbilt, toronto, Vancouver, Victor Gruen, walkability, Woonerfs
In Toronto, it is legal to cross a street mid-block as long as you yield to traffic and are not adjacent to a marked pedestrian crossing. Thanks to Nekotune for the great Creative Commons photo!
Early 2010 saw an uncharacteristically high number of pedestrian fatalities in the Greater Toronto Area. After the media storm that ensued, coupled with more pedestrian deaths in other parts of Canada, police crackdowns emerged across the country targeting jaywalkers in Toronto, Ottawa, and Calgary.
Crackdowns on jaywalking are a popular response because they seem to promote safe streets while quelling illegal behavior; above all, they offer the appearance of “doing something”. Unfortunately, publicly addressing what some consider to be reckless behavior on the part of pedestrians doesn’t make urban travel by foot any safer. Instead, it reinforces the notion that cars control the road. As David Owen, journalist and author of Green Metropolis, notes: “Tightly controlling pedestrians…results in more and faster driving, and that makes life even harder and more dangerous for people on foot.”
Tom Vanderbilt, bestselling author of Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do, provides a comprehensive analysis of the subject in his surprising and thoughtful article ‘In Defense of Jaywalking’ in Slate Magazine. In it, he argues that most jaywalkers are quite careful, citing the fact that about 25 percent of fatally injured pedestrians in the U.S. are simply drunk. The statistic is even higher in Canada. Transport Canada’s latest available study shows that in 2001, about 40 percent of fatally injured pedestrians had a blood alcohol level over the legal limit. Vanderbilt refers to studies that demonstrate how rarely pedestrians deaths involve jaywalking, and how – despite all the bellyaching we commonly hear from motorists about careless jaywalkers – drivers are, in fact, more likely to violate a pedestrian’s right of way in traffic. Further, much more common than jaywalking-related crashes with pedestrians are right- or left-turn crashes by automobiles into pedestrians who are crossing the intersection legally.
A sign prohibiting jaywalking in Oakland, California. Thanks to Transguyjay on Flickr for the Creative Commons photo!
An article in The Toronto Star, by author and urbanist Christopher Hume provides an explanation for this. Hume argues that jaywalkers are often actually safer when crossing the street because they “assume nothing” and as a result are more alert, while “those crossing legally assume everything,” essentially letting their guard down. He then provides the example of woonerfs, or “naked streets”. These are streets where pedestrians and cyclists have the right of way. Fewer accidents result because everyone – motorist, pedestrian and cyclist – must pay attention to one another. Similarly, David Owen notes how “studies have shown that pedestrians are safer in urban areas where jaywalking is common” because drivers are more cautious and alert. Owen also adds that “creative jaywalking is an environmental positive, because it makes traveling on foot easier,” giving people more incentives to get out of their car and walk.
Part Two of this two-part series on jaywalking is here.
