I Was Jaywalking When Suddenly It Hit Me…

By Chelsea Williams, Fall 2010

After my receiving my driver’s license on my 16th birthday, my Dad said to me, “Just remember the cardinal rule of traffic: Everybody else is a mindless idiot and will do the stupidest possible thing at the stupidest possible time. Act accordingly.”

When I moved to San Francisco and sold my car, I saw this cardinal rule from a whole new perspective; the perspective of a pedestrian. And not just any kind of pedestrian; a jaywalking pedestrian. As an active jaywalker, I thought I would check out the law I break every time I cross Beach Street in front of school to get a caffeine fix at the wharf.

Under California state law, Classic Jaywalking is defined as crossing a street between two adjacent intersections that are both controlled by “traffic control signal devices” (i.e., a traffic light). This is the traffic terrain outside of our campus, and as such, we, the pedestrians, by law, must cross at the intersection. (See California Vehicle Code [CVC] §21955.)

An important note that I find specifically relevant to the Alliant campus has to do with the distance between traffic signals. One might ask, “What if I’m standing half-way between two adjacent intersections that are far apart? Do I have to walk all the way over there in order to cross the road at the intersection to avoid breaking the law?” Technically, the answer is, “Yes.” Furthermore, an attempt to limit the distance to one quarter of a mile failed to pass in the California legislature a few years ago.

Now, armed with the knowledge of the law, let’s look at the risks associated with breaking this law. The Department of Transportation reported that jaywalkers make up 25 percent of total pedestrian fatalities. This means that someone is actually more likely to be hit by a car and die when they are, in fact, in a designated crosswalk. I would be willing to bet this is a result of people (particularly California natives) feeling a false sense of safety when they are using a designated cross walk to cross the street. In the “unsafe” areas where we actually have to look both ways and think before we cross the street, we’re more likely to be paying attention to those drivers who are not paying attention.

Additionally, many of the pedestrians killed by cars while jaywalking are drunk when they are hit. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration notes, “About 25% of fatally injured pedestrians have a BAC (blood alcohol content) greater than .20.” That’s 150 percent higher than the legal driving limit in California. Not surprisingly, these incidences primarily occur between 5pm and 11pm on Friday and Saturday nights; during which I hope very few of us are even at school. So, statistically speaking, if you’re paying attention to traffic while crossing Beach Street, the worst thing that could happen is being cited a $40 jaywalking ticket by a bored police officer. Nevertheless, this is not an invitation to jaywalk to and from Alliant. But always remember: Everybody else is a mindless idiot, and will do the stupidest possible thing at the stupidest possible time. Act accordingly.