It’s Now Legal to Jaywalk in New York City

For New York City locals, jaywalking has long-standing — but illegal — practice. But, according to a CNN article by Julianna Bragg, pedestrians in the Big Apple can now, for the first time since 1958, legally cross the street at any time without adhering to traffic signals. The change was made official last week after Mayor Adams neither signed nor vetoed the bill legalizing jaywalking that the city council passed in September.

“Supporters of the bill, including one of the sponsors, Council Member Mercedes Narcisse, believe this legislation is a step toward improving racial justice. New York police officers have historically faced criticism for targeting people of color with jaywalking tickets,” Bragg writes. StreetsblogNYC reported back in May that 92 percent of jaywalking tickets issued in New York City in 2023, which carry up to a $250 fine, were issued to Black and Latino pedestrians.

NYC city officials and police officers initially came out against the bill as it was being considered earlier this summer. The police argued that ticketing jaywalking helps reduce traffic deaths. Bragg reports that over the past five years 200 people have died while crossing the street in the middle of the blog or against traffic signals, accounting for around 34 percent of all pedestrian fatalities. But, as explained by Peter Norton, the 100-year-old effort to first codify “jaywalking” was driven by enterprises with a business interest in automobiles who wanted cars to be the priority road user. Indeed, traffic experts like Angie Schmitt and Charles T. Brown have long argued that jaywalking is a concept developed by auto companies not to keep pedestrians safe but rather to shift the blame away from reckless drivers who kill them.

New York City is now among a handful of states and major U.S. cities that have decriminalized jaywalking in recent years, including California, Virginia, Nevada, Denver, and Kansas City, Missouri.