Jaywalking

Jaywalking occurs when a pedestrian walks in or crosses a roadway that has traffic, other than at a suitable crossing point, or otherwise in disregard of traffic rules. The term originated with 'jay-drivers', people who drove horse-drawn carriages and automobiles on the wrong side of the road, before taking its current meaning.'A campaign of ridicule directed toward the extermination of the 'Jay Walker Family' was inaugurated today by the local automobile club. The 'Jay Walker Family' according to explanations made today is numerous. It is composed of those pedestrians who cross congested streets without first looking to see if it is safe to do so. The local automobile club today adopted resolutions suggesting propaganda to be distributed all over the country to 'kill off the Jay Walker Family.' Automobile clubs all over the country ... will be asked to aid in exterminating 'Mr. and Mrs. Jay Walker and all the little Walkers.' Jaywalking occurs when a pedestrian walks in or crosses a roadway that has traffic, other than at a suitable crossing point, or otherwise in disregard of traffic rules. The term originated with 'jay-drivers', people who drove horse-drawn carriages and automobiles on the wrong side of the road, before taking its current meaning. The term 'jaywalking' is primarily a North American concept where laws restrict pedestrian use of public roads. In other countries such as the United Kingdom, the word is not generally used and there are no laws limiting how pedestrians can use public highways. Legal texts in other countries use different concepts, such as Rules applicable to pedestrians in the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic. One member of this convention, the United Kingdom, does not have jaywalking laws; its Highway Code relies on the pedestrian making their own judgment on whether it is safe to cross based on the Green Cross Code. Pedestrians do have priority over turning vehicles. Rule 170 of the UK's Highway Code states that a driver should 'watch out for pedestrians crossing a road into which you are turning. If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way.' The word jaywalk is not historically neutral. It is a compound word derived from the word jay, an inexperienced person and a curse word that originated in the early 1900s, and walk. No historical evidence supports an alternative folk etymology by which the word is traced to the letter 'J' (characterizing the route a jaywalker might follow). The word was promoted by pro-automobile interests in the 1920s, according to historian Peter D. Norton. While jaywalking is associated with pedestrians today, the earliest references to 'jay' behavior in the street were about horse-drawn carriages and automobiles in 1905 Kansas: 'jay drivers' who did not drive on the right side of the street. The term swiftly expanded to pedestrians, and by 1909, The Chanute Daily Tribune warned 'The jay walker needs attention as well as the jay driver, and is about as big a nuisance.' Originally, the legal rule was that 'all persons have an equal right in the highway, and that in exercising the right each shall take due care not to injure other users of the way'. In time, however, streets became the province of motorized traffic, both practically and legally. Automobile interests in the US took up the cause of labeling and scorning jaywalkers in the 1910s and early 1920s, by then the earlier term of 'jay driver' was declining in use. The earliest citation in the Oxford English Dictionary follows in 1917. Jaywalking is illegal in over 10 countries due to the health risks. For example, a newspaper article introduced the term to readers in Grants Pass, Oregon in 1913: Today, in the US, the word might be used incorrectly with substantial confusion.