Remember jaywalking? Pol sez nix it as crime

Jaywalking would no longer be a crime in the city under a bill proposed Tuesday by Queens Councilman Costa Constantinides.

City law bars pedestrians from crossing streets outside of crosswalks and against traffic lights. The jaywalking law — which is in line with New York State law requiring pedestrians to obey traffic signals — is ignored by millions of New Yorkers who scamper across streets anywhere they please.

Constantinides would change the law’s language to “advise” pedestrians to use crosswalks and wait for the light when crossing a street.

Steve Vaccaro, a lawyer who represents pedestrians and cyclists in crash cases, said Constantinides’ bill would make it harder for motorists to argue in court cases that jaywalking pedestrians acted negligently and were thus at least partly responsible for their injuries.

“There would no longer be a required demonstrable directive from the judge that the pedestrian was wrong,” said Vaccaro, who noted the bill still advises pedestrians that motorists have the right of way in streets and crossing outside an intersection is risky.

Jaywalking laws do little to protect the public, say street safety activists.

“Most pedestrians killed or severely injured on New York City streets are struck walking in the crosswalk, with the signal, by turning drivers,” said Hsi-Pei Liao, a founding member of Families for Safe Streets whose 3-year-old daughter was killed by a motorist in a Flushing, Queens, crosswalk in 2013.

“Enforcement against so-called jaywalking doesn’t address the most dangerous behaviors by drivers, and perpetuates the myth that victims are responsible for their own deaths on our streets,” Liao said.

Constantinides says jaywalking enforcement is racially biased in New York.

NYPD officers in 2019 issued 397 criminal summonses for jaywalking — and 354 of the summonses, or 89%, went to Blacks or Hispanics.

Of 205 jaywalking summonses issued in the Bronx in 2019, just two went to white people, the data shows.

“Every New Yorker crosses in the middle of the block, but that can end in a ticket depending on your skin color,” said Constantinides.

“It’s beyond time we end this system by changing these outdated rules, which no longer reflect New York City’s modern day streetscape.”