Transportation
It’s Time for California to Decriminalize Jaywalking
A state bill removing fines for crossing the street outside of a crosswalk could mark a milestone in the movement to eliminate a traffic law that is too often unequally enforced.
A pedestrian crosses California Street in San Francisco in 2020.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
California is poised to abandon one of the most problematic conventions in American transportation.
On September 8, the California Senate advanced a bill that would eliminate fines for crossing the street outside of a crosswalk — the practice better known as jaywalking. Proposed by Assemblyman Phil Ting of San Francisco, AB 1238 is part of a wave of similar decriminalization efforts across the nation, following a turbulent year of norm-shifting public crises.