Jaywalking

Online comments: 6

• Eric Donahue

  Jaywalking should never be a basis for criminal or civil liability. It is a basic right and necessity for pedestrians, the NYPD should not be given discretion to cite or charge someone for an act so universally done by all demographics, and the only penalty for jaywalking should be a proportionate reduction in damages if someone struck by a vehicle in the street sues the driver or insurer and a jury finds they entered the street negligently. No driver should feel entitled to travel faster than the city’s posted speed limit, and for them to know that jaywalking is unlawful only fosters the sense that the streets belong exclusively to cars; a driver should expect at all times that a pedestrian might enter the street, so that they are prepared when the person doing so is a child, elderly, or disabled. I say all this as someone who has a car in the city and knows this places a burden on the already challenging act of driving here.

  Comment added March 20, 2025 9:44pm

• S

  This is one of the dumbest proposals I have ever seen. Motorist have enough to contend with in this city as it is. Allowing pedestrians to cross willy nilly wherever they feel like sets the stage for yet more pedestrian injuries and fatalities. This will of course ensure even more lawsuits and our car insurance rates will skyrocket. Car owners pay massive registration fees plus other road taxes to use the roadways. Pedestrians and cyclist pay nothing. This war on motorist must stop and you best believe that anyone including the mayor that signs off on this will not our votes.

  Comment added March 21, 2025 1:39pm

• Stephen Fresella

  With the redesigns of crosswalks coupled with the ever increasing amount of scooters and bikes, pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers dealing with managing their safety in these areas need not have the added stress of people being allowed to jay walk. Coming out from an “Ell Pillar” is most dangerous. Crossing while wearing headphones or distracted while talking on cell phones adds to the stress levels of others beside pedestrians on the road.
  We spent a lot of money redesigning crosswalks and to permit jaywalking sounds so contradictory to the effort of crosswalk redesign. Why is the trend of personal responsibility not applicable anymore? Why add to the chaos? How about making it illegal to jay walk, illegal to cross a road while on the phone, illegal to ride a scooter on the sidewalk, illegal to disobey traffic regulations and signals when operating a scooter, moped or e bike. What are we trying to achieve? If you train someone to eat with their hands it will be hard to get them to use of fork. Same here.
  Reduce stress. Dont add to it. Next…. Littering.

  Comment added March 25, 2025 12:19pm

• Welson Chang

  The proposed rule to decriminalize jaywalking can predictably create a lot of traffic jams at busy intersections, especially with the proposed amendments to § 4. Paragraphs (2) and (3) of subdivision (c) of section 4-03 of chapter 4 of Title 34 of the Rules of the City of New York. Anyone in Queens who has been to Flushing will know that crossing the intersection on Roosevelt Avenue and College Point Blvd already presents problems as pedestrians regularly ignore the flashing upraised hand and treat it as a permission to walk. With the decriminalization of jaywalking, they will be more prone to continue with that habit.

  Also, for § 5. Section 4-04 of chapter 4 of Title 34 of the Rules of the City of New York, the grammar of the proposed amendment is unclear if the proposed amendment that pedestrians “are advised to abide by” (removing “shall be subject to”) means pedestrians are simply “advised” to abide by the lawful orders and directions of any law enforcement officer and can ignore the orders and directions of any law enforcement officer without penalty.

  If the current officeholders are serious about public safety and have genuine respect for our law enforcement officers, they need to revise the proposed amendment in the areas where pedestrians must follow the lawful orders and directions of any law enforcement officer.

  Comment added April 16, 2025 12:42am

• Dana Dice

  The high volume of traffic, busses, and people is already very busy in New York City. I am a resident of Hollis, Queens, and drive through Jamaica many times a week. People are traversing, cars passing, and the scooters weaving through the traffic is already dangerous. We need to protect all individuals and allowing people to jay walk is not healthy or wise for our communities. I am firmly against putting into law a decriminalization of jaywalking.

  Comment added April 16, 2025 5:55pm

• Cerise

  I don’t agree with this bill. We can’t have people crossing wherever they want. The wording is misleading. No one is a “criminal” for jaywalking. You should just get a citation or warning.

  Comment added April 16, 2025 7:32pm