#Jaywalking

[would-they-jaywalk]

The entirety of Massachusetts

Submitted by Anonymous

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Hengki Koentjoro :: @hengki24 :: © 2024 ➤ Jaywalking

* * * *

“We tend to associate intimacy with closeness and closeness with a certain sum of shared experiences. Yet in reality total strangers, who will never say a single word to each other, can share an intimacy — an intimacy contained in the exchange of a glance, a nod of the head, a smile, a shrug of a shoulder. A closeness that lasts for minutes or for the duration of a song that is being listened to together. An agreement about life. An agreement without clauses. A conclusion spontaneously shared between the untold stories gathered around the song.”

— John Berger, Some Notes on Song

[vib-ribbon-daily]

[amiraallis]

Jay walkin'

[ypso21]

jaywalking is a moral good in the eternal crusade against cars

[sheppyscribbles]

Unbothered. Moisturized. Happy. In your lane. Focused. Blocking fucking traffic.

Somehow on Friday, on my way home from something, twice in the span of a minute I had to hit the brakes as people with headphones stepped blithely into the street on their way to who knows where. Didn't even look both ways.

Like, it wasn't even a Walmart parking lot, where I'm used to pedestrians having no sense of self-preservation. Please, people, value your lives more than I do!

[daily-spanish-word]

to carry, take, wear llevar

“What?! carry the jaguar?! Okay, but not without giving him a jab first, so he’ll be unconscious.”

I don’t like waiting for traffic lights when carrying something heavy, so I’ll jaywalk.

He carries a skateboard. Él lleva un monopatín.

Picture by Hafiz Issadeen on Flickr

[gunlicker-offical]

What is your opinion on jaywalking? Your answer must be at least one five sentence paragraph long with a full explanation of your reasoning.

My opinion on jaywalking is that it is generally harmless in the situations it is committed most, but still a bad thing overall. A large amount of people know to look both ways and not to cross the street when a car is coming. If a person is not careful and the driver is not paying attention, though, a car could hit them. It also does more pverall damage to the infrastructure and the rest pf the crosswalks, because if people cross wherever, the crosswalks will be neglected and they will lack critical upkeep. This will result in less places to cross the street overall.

That is only mentioning crossong where there isn't a crosswalk. Crossing over a crosswalk where there is a sign that says don't cross, especially in the city, is very dangerous. Those only appear when the lights are red at the intersections and it is safe to cross. Crossing with a green light and an inattentive driver is very dangerous, and could get you killed.

Now, does it deserve to be a crime? Yes, yes it does. Should it be punishable by fines or jail time? Hell no. It's a minor crime. The only victim is the walker. Don't throw them into holding, give them a slap on the wrist and a 10 minute lecture from a fat sergeant with a flat voice.

That said, I have no experience with crosswalks. I live in the country. All I know is from shows and movies. Common sense allowed me to figure the rest out.

Don't jaywalk. Or do, I'm not your mom.

[would-they-jaywalk]

BABA

[gnarmy-general]

Gnarmy Solider: K1L78

Code Name: Anchor

Crime: Jaywalking

[illuminatingfacts]

Did you know? 🚶‍♂️🚗 "Jaywalking" was a term created by auto companies in the early 1900s to shift blame for accidents from drivers to pedestrians. 🤯 Clever or shady?

[explosiv-glasses]

Just watched a kirby failboat video and this thought has plagued me forever so I will force it upon all of you:

Who WOULDN'T jaywalk?

[stayingmachine]

if you drink Bacardi and the midnight cherry freeze from taco bell at the same time it kind of tastes like the freshest red apple

[vib-ribbon-daily]

[georgebbwbush]

Jae-hwa King

[handeaux]

Cincinnati Surrendered To The Automobile When Jaywalking Was Outlawed

How many Cincinnatians subscribed to Popular Mechanics magazine in 1912? And how many of those subscribers recognized, in the September issue, a tiny article on Page 414 that laid out the future of the Queen City? It all seemed so innocent:

“The city pedestrian who cares not for traffic regulations at street corners, but strays all over the street, crossing in the middle of the block, or attempting to save time by choosing a diagonal route across a street intersection instead of adhering to the regular crossing, is designated as a ‘jay walker’ in Kansas City. Kansas City recently adopted a new ordinance for the control of foot traffic as well as vehicles, and ‘jay walking’ is to be prevented as rigidly as ‘jay driving.’”

That squib appeared adjacent to another brief item on how the brand-new town of Speedway, Indiana allowed only motorized vehicles on its streets, banning anything pulled by horses. In combination, the two articles sounded the death knell for a way of life that had existed for millennia.

Look at the illustrations that grace the old books about Cincinnati. There is no such thing as jaywalking. The streets were owned and enjoyed by the people. Pedestrians share the road with wheeled vehicles, crossing wherever convenient, even stopping in the middle of the street to chat. Horse-drawn carriages and wagons hauled passengers and freight. Men pulling handcarts and pushing wheelbarrows dodge the throng. The only motorized vehicles were the electric street cars, and they were confined to their tracks.

During election season, Cincinnati’s streets filled with torchlit political parades. On at least one occasion, a parade filled Vine Street from Fourth Street to McMicken with chanting men waving flaming brands, lighting the clouds above with a rosy glow. When any dignitary showed up in town, they were expected to speechify from their hotel balcony and people thronged the street below, halting traffic as they cheered. People crossing the street from any direction weren’t “jay walking.” They were just “walking.” The automobile changed all that.

Horse-drawn vehicles and electric streetcars killed a fair number of people, but the motor car quickly notched more than a hundred fatalities and many more injuries every year. Local media often blamed the victims. The Cincinnati Post [8 January 1916] piled on:

“Fourth-st. is the mecca of Cincinnati’s jay walkers. Most of the jay-walking is done between Vine and Race-sts. The other day we counted 20 persons crossing the street at different points at one time – and none was using a cross-walk. Fortunately accidents are rare on this street because of the extreme care exercised by autoists.”

It appears not to have occurred to the writer that this behavior, just five years previous, would have been considered normal.

The hammer landed in 1917. Cincinnati joined the ranks of other auto-infested cities that criminalized jaywalking. The new law went into effect in May of that year, restricting automobiles to no more than 8 miles per hour in the business district and 15 miles per hour in residential districts. For the first time, pedestrians were restricted to sidewalks and crosswalks. Pedestrians – literally – fought the new law. According to the Post [23 May 1917]:

“Theodore Mitchell, 38, agent, 631 Maple-av, is the first person to be arrested on a charge of jay-walking since the new traffic ordinance went into effect. Traffic Patrolman [Edward] Schraffenberger charged Mitchell attempting to make a short cut at Fifth and Walnut streets. When reminded of his mistake, Mitchell became angry, Schraffenberger said. Mitchell, charged with disorderly conduct and violating the traffic ordinance, was cited to appear in court Thursday.”

If you’d asked the cops, however, they would unanimously aver that the chief violators were women. The Post [21 May 1917] quoted Police Lieutenant Charles Wolsefer:

“The women are awful. They just don’t pay any attention at all. Just take a look at them crossing on Race-st.”

The reporter did so, and counted 48 jaywalkers, of whom 37 were women. A few days later, another Post reporter followed another policeman on patrol who confronted 25 jaywalkers, of which only two were men.

Among the first arrested was Miss Ella Bright of 538 Howell Avenue, Clifton, a teacher at Woodward High School. Miss Bright did not care for the attitude of the city policeman who accosted her. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer [7 June 1917]:

“She declared she had been upbraided unduly by an officer because she crossed the street in a manner which was a violation of the traffic laws after alighting from a street car.”

In August of that year, Mrs. John Mongan, 4217 Glenway Avenue, Price Hill, was arrested for striking a police officer who grabbed her arm as she executed a “Dutch Cut” (diagonal jaywalking) across the intersection at Sixth & Race.

Former U.S. President William Howard Taft, then on the law faculty at Yale, was visiting his hometown that year and blithely jogged across Sixth Street near Main, only to be corralled by Officer Joseph Schindler, who gave the law professor a little legal lesson.

The Post even enlisted its “boy reporter,” 12-year-old Freddy Printz, to test the city’s ability to enforce the new jaywalking regulations. On 7 July 1917, Freddy reported his fruitless attempts to get bawled out by a police officer. Despite blatantly jaywalking at five different locations, he only earned a polite reprimand from one officer.

While the local constabulary was doing their best to enforce the new laws, the automobiles were merciless. On 21 May 1918, the Post reported on the 25th traffic fatality of the year. The victim, a 12-year-old girl, was the twelfth child killed by an automobile that year.

Curiously, although Cincinnati outlawed jaywalking, the city had omitted one very important detail that might have contributed to compliance with the new law. A letter signed only “Chicagoan” appeared in the Post on 13 June 1917. The writer suggested that, like other cities attempting to get pedestrians to cross at intersections, Cincinnati should assist pedestrians by painting white lines on the street to mark approved pedestrian crossing paths. Cincinnati’s mandatory crosswalks were unmarked!