Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey Brainstuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, you're in a rush and don't want to head all the way to the crosswalk to cross the street anyway? Who cares? Right? The store you need is directly across the street, not anywhere near the intersection, so you go ahead and cross when traffic is clear. What you've just done is jaywalked across to the street at somewhere other than an intersection or crosswalk, And it's probably illegal. But why?
Mostly this has to do with pedestrian safety in general, and it makes sense considering that data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, shows a total of over six thousand pedestrian deaths in twenty nineteen alone. Furthermore, while pedestrians represent only three percent of those involved in traffic accidents, they account for fourteen teen percent of traffic deaths, and about seventy percent of pedestrian fatalities are from accidents
outside of intersections. So, yes, jaywalking is illegal for safety reasons, got it. But jaywalking's history and the enforcement of it is more complicated than one might expect. The term jaywalking is derived from an older and now more obscure term jay driving. Jay driving was used to describe drivers of horse drawn carriages who stubbornly drove on the wrong side of the road. Some of the earliest known uses of both jaywalking and jay driving come from newspapers in Kansas
in nineteen oh five. In both cases, the word jay was a derogatory term for someone who was inexperienced at what they were doing. However, the earliest uses of jaywalking described poor sidewalk manners rather than illegally crossing the street. It's unclear exactly why the meaning of the time of all.
One might assume that when the automobile appeared, the car also became a status symbol, and therefore that there was class tension among those who could afford to drive and those who were stuck walking, But in fact the opposite is true. Drivers were the social outsiders, outnumbered by pedestrians who resented being displaced to sidewalks. This social phase lasted well into the nineteen twenties, when the automobile industry lobbied to make cities more car friendly and to make jaywalking
first a faux pas and then eventually a crime. A crosswalks were added to streets in nineteen eleven, and laws against jaywalking were widespread by the nineteen thirties. These days, if your hit while jaywalking, your rights as a pedestrian
vary from state to state. Most states view the situation differently, depending on whether the pedestrian was in a controlled crossing with a crosswalk or an uncontrolled crossing with no markings or signals of Further complicating matters, traffic signals don't always have the same meaning in every state, and some states have distracted walking laws that let law enforcement issue citations
for offences such as texting while crossing an intersection. Then there are states like Michigan that have no state wide crosswalk laws, leaving it up to cities and towns to write and communicate their own regulations. So when you're behind the wheel, how do you keep up with all those laws? Consider that old rule of thumb that you might have
learned way back in driver's education. The right of way is something you give, not take a Laws for drivers again vary from state to state, but in general, drivers must yield the right of way to pedestrians in crosswalks and at intersections that have stop signs or traffic signals. But pedestrians are also expected to yield the right of way to drivers whenever there's no established place for them
to cross still. In nineteen states, drivers are supposed to yield to a pedestrian when they're anywhere in the roadway, and in even more states, drivers are supposed to yield to pedestrians whenever the pedestrian is in whatever specific proximity to the driver's vehicle. The NHTSA has a guide for Pedestrian Safety Enforcement for law enforcement officers. It advises those officers to quote site both drivers and pedestrians, but focus
on drivers as they are the less vulnerable population. In other words, pedestrians and drivers often share responsibility for collisions, but drivers should remember that they are much less likely to suffer bodily harm. But okay, you've probably heard the pedestrians always have the right of way even if they are jaywalking. Is that not true? Surprise? There are a couple of ways to answer this question. First, it depends
again on local laws. A second, it depends on what the driver's car insurance policy says under those local laws. And third, and most importantly, if you're driving and you hit a pedestrian and they get injured, it doesn't really matter who was right. The NHTSA's guidelines emphasize the pedestrians are still responsible for their own safety. However, it's also the obligation of motorists to be on the lookout for pedestrians everywhere and at all times. But what about those jaywalkers?
Are they likely to be penalized for the practice in general? The answer is probably no. However, according to various investigations, current enforcement against jaywalking disproportionately targets people of color. For example, following the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in twenty fourteen, a Department of Justice investigation found that ninety five percent of people cited for jaywalking in that district were black, even though only about seventy five percent
of the total population was black at the time. Even in the mostly white collar town of Champagne or Banno, Illinois, eighty nine percent of people cited for jaywalking. We're black. And even when jaywalking enforcement isn't overtly racist, it may target pedestrians in misleading or unfair ways as a means of revenue generation rather than safety. Improvement. So in short, yes, jaywalking is illegal in most jurisdictions, but it falls on both drivers and pedestrians to be aware of local laws.
Though even then common sense and a priority on safety should prevail. Pay attention out there. Today's episode is based on the article is jaywalking still a crime? On how stuffworks dot com? Written by Shri's three wid brain Stuff is production by heart Radio in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows