NYC Officials Split on Jaywalking Decriminalization

New York City officials want to keep ‘jaywalking’ illegal, opposing a bill that would decriminalize the practice, reports Kevin Duggan in Streetsblog NYC.

Tickets for crossing against the light or outside of a crosswalk are rare in the city, but NYPD cops overwhelmingly hand out the $250 summonses to people of color — which is why Council Member Mercedes Narcisse aims to simply decriminalize the process of just walkin' here.

As Duggan explains, “The NYPD has a well-documented history of disproportionately ticketing pedestrians of color for allegedly crossing against a traffic signal, a trend that continued into 2023 with 92 percent of tickets going to Black or Hispanic New Yorkers.”

NYC police officers argue that ticketing jaywalking helps reduce traffic deaths, pointing somewhat counterintuitively to the fact that the majority of jaywalking tickets are given near high-risk corridors.

Elizabeth Adams, interim co-Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives, pointed to other ways to improve road safety, saying, "The city can protect New Yorkers by redesigning streets to slow down drivers and make pedestrians more visible — especially in areas with high pedestrian fatalities — not criminalizing walking.” Other safety advocates say jaywalking criminalization is “outdated” and doesn’t contribute to road safety.