100 Years ago, if you were a pedestrian, crossing the street was simple: you walked across it. Today, if there's traffic in the area and you want to follow the law, you need to find a crosswalk. And if there's a traffic light, you need to wait for it to change to green.
Fail to do so, and you're committing a crime: jaywalking. To most people, this seems part of the basic nature of roads. But it's actually the result of an aggressive, forgotten 1920s campaign led by auto groups and manufacturers that redefined who owned the city street.
3 comment(s):
Or maybe it is just logical and safer not to have people running across the street at any place or any time? Especially now that cars are 3x faster and far more numerous? Try driving down 125th street in NYC some time to see what it is like when people don't obey reasonable street crossing conventions.
"Except of course in the civilized world there's no such crime as jaywalking or any equivalent."
What part of the world is this now? Try crossing the street in the third world some time, or driving there. It is outrageously dangerous and totally chaotic.
Who mentioned the third world? Wherever that might be. I'm talking about the civilized world where big business doesn't dictate the law to government and where a person in a car is not considered more important than one on foot.
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