You Don’t Know Jack About Jaywalking
Decatur Metro | June 30, 2011 | 11:21 amThink you know jaywalking when you see it? Think again.
The Georgia law on pedestrians crossing a street is a bit more complex than “you must cross the street in a crosswalk or at an intersection. The PEDs website has some great graphics which shows the variations in the law. Here’s the first of three…
Makes sense, right? But did you know that as long as there’s a non-signalized intersection somewhere adjacent to the point of crossing, the act of crossing mid-street is LEGAL? See visuals of what I’m talking about after the jump…
Applying this law to the streets of downtown Decatur, I’m hard-pressed to find many streets where crossing mid-street would be considered illegal. In fact the only major strip I can think of is West Ponce between Clairemont and Commerce. Most other segments of the road have non-signaled intersections interspersed between signals, or no signals at all.
Posts like this are the reason Decatur Metro is my favorite local site.
So all that crossing of E. College I do between Avery St and Candler is LEGAL!? Well, amen.
Between Clairemont and Commerce on West Ponce is the t-bone intersection with Marshall Street, so any crossing across that entire segment is legal. Anarchy!
Oh good point! Hmm…so is there ANY road segment in Decatur where “jaywalking” is illegal? What about West Ponce between Commerce and Ponce Place?
Well, you do have the entrances/exits to Taco Mac and Commerce Square. And I believe Commerce Square has a stop sign for its exit (although it is a private drive).
And perhaps between Clairemont and Church? The loop on the Square has a stop sign, so wouldn’t it make crossing near there fair game? Of course, there’s already a crosswalk in front of the Starbucks, but being legally rebellious sounds fun.
Ah, scratch that. I misread and thought you said there were not any other legal places. Legal, illegal, what’s the difference..
Is it happy hour yet?
Apparently, happy hour (the kind with discounted drinks) are prohibited in Atlanta: it’s illegal to sell “any alcoholic beverage at a price less than the price regularly charged for such alcoholic beverage during the same calendar week.”
Wow !! What an awful law !! the laws of physics will surely get tested someday.
The stretch on Ponce from Nelson Ferry/Northern Ave(Marley) to Ponce de Leon Place( Cafe Lily) has a street between the lights, Fairview. The distance between the lights is almost 1/4 mile.
And, there is a crosswalk at Fairview, yet for almost a quarter mile someone can still cross legally? I am amazed there is no distance limit for the intersecting street with no light.
Wow.
The other concern is the impunity with which people cross. The perception that they have the right of way no matter what is dangerous. I have seen folks walk across and barely acknowledge the traffic around them, or even look.
But on the good side this clarification also means that crossing outside of the crosswalk between Ponce de Leon Place and Commerce is illegal-so Taco Mac patrons beware.
And the walkers that cross at the McDonald’s onto Commerce between Church & Clairmont are taking their lives into their own hands…but they don’t seem to mind, it happens all the time.
Good Info Metro !!
I went down to the crossroads, fell down on my knees
I went down to the crossroads, fell down on my knees
Asked the lord above for mercy, save me if you please
I went down to the crossroads, tried to flag a ride
I went down to the crossroads, tried to flag a ride
Nobody seemed to know me, everybody passed me by
So the crossing is legal, I get that but what’s the story re: right-of-way? Obviously, in a painted crosswalk the pedestrian has the right of way, but what about the other above illustrations?
Good question. Here’s the applicable part of the code from the PEDs webpage…
“a) Every pedestrian crossing a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right of way to all vehicles upon the roadway unless he has already, and under safe conditions, entered the roadway.”
When you get knocked down and run over in a painted crosswalk, you will also get paint all over your clothes and exposed skin.
(
This doesn’t make any sense to me. I was taught as a child that it’s always safest to cross at the corner, and it seems like the law ought to be optimizing safety for everybody. Is this an unintentional loophole in the law? Or is there logic that I’m just not seeing?
I’d say that there’s many intersections where crossing at the corner is not safer than crossing somewhere else. A good example is the intersection of North Decatur, Scott, and Medlock. You’re much better off crossing any one of those streets as far from the intersection as possible because the intersection itself is very dangerous, walk signal notwithstanding.
There are other reasons for not crossing at the intersection. For instance, what if the nearest intersection is a quarter mile up the road?
+100 — and what if there IS NO OPERATIVE WALK SIGNAL?
Chira makes a good point below. At an intersection you have cars coming at you from all angles. Crossing mid-street, only two. If you’re an observant pedestrian, this seems to be a safer option.
Ideally, crossing at an intersection should be no more dangerous crossing mid-block because pedestrians should wait until the left turn signal traffic has passed and the pedestrian signal indicates to walk. And then, after the left turn signal is no longer a green arrow, the drivers should wait before turning left to let the pedestrians go across. But in reality, both groups can ignore the signals, which poses more risk than just 2-way traffic. On the other hand, I think drivers are more accustomed to accomodating pedestrians at intersections than they are to stopping at pedestrian crossings in the middle of the block. Hence the drivers that don’t stop at the yellow pedestrian triangles even if pedestrians clearly started crossing before the vehicles got there. I don’t think it’s usually that drivers refuse to stop as that they are careless and don’t think to look for pedestrians crossing legally. Drivers just don’t think about pedestrians in the middle of the block.
So you got me as to which is more dangerous–crossing at a busy intersection with green arrows for left-turns or crossing mid-block. My instinct is the latter but I respect the instinct of cats and dogs!
“the drivers should wait” — AS IF THEY WANT TO FOR A LOWLY PEDESTRIAN!
I walk a LOT and I would rather be careful than right when it comes to crossing busy streets. This morning at 7 am my friend and I had the “walk” signal to cross Commerce (we were on Church) and not one but two cars turned left on Commerce, in front of and behind us, as we attempted to cross. They saw us – they were just in too big a hurry to wait for us to clear, I guess.
So, soooooo common! This happens to me ALL THE TIME. The drivers don’t give a hoot whether pedestrians have a walk signal or not — they are just in too big a hurry to let someone walk in front of them. This happened to me today: I had the walk signal to cross a 4-lane street, and a car in the turn lane on my left turned right in front of me just as I was stepping off the curb. Another inch or two… yikes!
I have always heard… that dogs and cats will never cross a street at an intersection, because they intuitively know they have less traffic to deal with crossing a street with only 1 or 2 directions of traffic, rather than the 4 (or 5) at intersections. Makes sense to me!
Plus they have those 9 lives, so they’ve got that going for them as well.
Funny that you added this comment, Chira, bc the comment about crossing mid-block being safer than crossing at an intersection reminded me of a dog I used to know who did this when off-leash (often, and not my dog). We used to comment on it, and on how smart the dog was. Dave the Dog, former presidential candidate I believe, RIP.
Ever since someone told me that, I have watched animals crossing streets, and it seems to be true that they seem to avoid the intersections.
Seems we all see “squashed” dogs, cats, and other varmints who have crossed this way…are you sure you want to trust these instincts?
Church Street between Ponce and Sycamore is ILLeagal to jaywalk. So be careful after getting your coffee at java monkey and crossing back to the square.
I’m not questioning the relative safety of crossing mid-block versus at the corner — obviously, it depends on the particular location and also what traffic is like at the time. It’s precisely because of that variability that the law makes no sense to me. And so I wonder how it came to be.
Legal, illegal. They all look the same when they’re flying over my hood.
LOL! My sentiments exactly…
This is the reason to drive across the street. I usually take my chicken with me.
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