Comments on: Jaywalking … to Jail?

By: jonah

jonah — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 12:17:45 +0000

they got me last week for ‘parading without a permit’ – i tried to convince them that you cant have a ‘one-man-parade’ by definition; but no such luck

By: Maia M

Maia M — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:34:45 +0000

The solution lies with progressive engineering solutions. It is too bad DDOT isn’t into that (despite the rhetoric).

By: restaurantrefugee

restaurantrefugee — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:59:56 +0000

The jaywalking would not provide you with a overnight visit to DC jail rather the officer would most likely arrest on the catch-all infraction (read: somebody pissed off a cop) of Failure to obey the lawful order of a Police officer.

I would suspect, however, that this particular officer wanted to flirt with your GF and this hamfisted power grab was his best effort.

By: yoyoindc

yoyoindc — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:46:19 +0000

I hope this is not the reason you are moving to Boston.

You will be missed, I love (ed) you blog.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:41:04 +0000

I agree that waiting for a walk signal can feel like waiting for grass to grow, there’s also the issue of people crossing the street in flagrant violation of the signal, particularly during rush hours. The flashing red “don’t walk” means don’t start, and clear out of the intersection if you’re in it. One of my greatest sources of road rage is trying to turn right onto Rhode Island off Connecticut northbound, where people ignore the pedestrian signals with abandon and start crossing when the timer reads 3 seconds. I appreciate that pedestrians have somewhere to go, and I applaud that you use public transit – I wish it were more feasible for me to do so. In the meantime, I’d really appreciate it if we could all share the roads. It might make for a bit more peace and lower blood pressure all around.

By: reyonthehill

reyonthehill — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:06:24 +0000

I agree. When I visited DC a few years ago, I marveled at the 60-second long pedestrian countdowns, but if you were waiting to walk the other direction — and there was no traffic — that is a very long time.

I think this raises the issue of controlled vs. uncontrolled intersections, and I would add a third category: semi-controlled intersections. Too many times, especially in cities, the default is a traffic light (controlled) which requires a defined pedestrian walking time. Without that, there would be chaos. In a semi-controlled intersection, say, a traffic circle or even a four-way stop sign (which many times is just as effective as a traffic light), pedestrians have the right-of-way by default. (Obviously uncontrolled intersections do not work in urban areas.)