Jaywalking criminalizes poverty

Traffic equipment are designed and intended for Motorized Vehicles writes one blogger on myspace.

So are facilities that the equipment is designed into and the laws on how to use them. Jay Walking is an example of where the common denominator in all forms of transportation is criminalized, because the mode is legally morphed into alternate, while driving is judged normal. The law acts schizophrenic by allowing an intersection everywhere a pedestrian crosses. Similarly the law makes arcane distinctions between prima facie speed and speed traps. The result is that drivers can kill peds without recourse, because only driving is facilitated, i.e. engineered, allowing drivers to get away without intent, since the law splits its attention between peds and cars, instead of the life liberty and happiness of people.

More could be done around intent. Jim Dietrich, Staff Attorney, American Prosecutors Research Institute, National Traffic Law Center, writes "Unfortunately, vehicular homicide statutes have caused many prosecutors to avoid using traditional homicide statutes and to rely heavily on the easier-to-prove vehicular homicide statutes. This is true even when traditional homicide statutes provide better penalty choices given the nature of the evidence and the sentence sought... demonstrates that vehicular and traditional homicide statutes together make up a broad spectrum prosecutors can use to achieve the best outcome."

If other factors like weigh, response time, and impact were considered, in the way the facility operates, for each mode, i.e. the inherent danger is quantified, the enforcement and prosecution could be different.

Jaywalking is allowed everywhere from one angle of the law. And it makes sense if the crash impact parameters (weight, speed, etc) are quantified. For example an average pedestrian speed is 1.5 mph, a top speed is 2 mph, a useful radius is a 1/5th of a mile (1200'- note we can't even use the same units of measure), and a useful spacing between crossings is 100' (which would equate to 24 blocks on a pedestrian city diameter) and is a staple of the older towns in Europe and Asia, and the downtowns we had here on the Peninsula when it evolved along the UP track (now Caltrain.)

The law can't deal with these ninth (rights) and eight (criminalization) amendment issues and they remain like fossils in the jurisprudence.

Now by ratio factor in bike and auto use parameters. Auto blocks in auto hostile cities like SF are 250' but in auto friendly or pedestrian hostile Peninsula locations the blocks can range from 500' to a 1000' (note that a block here is equal to a pedestrian city radius! without any of the equivalent services creating a danger through travel demand.) Consider the inconvenience from priority (speed is distance times time) and the load (how much energy and effort it takes to cover this distance) and the impact on other modes like taking the bus and train, which run on a fixed route and schedule, which means that while walking a peninsula block and waiting for the signal to cross the street you can miss your transit schedule.

An auto top speed is homicidal on a city street evolved for people, i.e. a city street designed before cars, the primary reason being that a person cannot get our of the way in time. But a more realistic reason, like disease from contaminated water or anthrax, would be that the auto is hostile to a livable city, and should be used like leeches- in specific circumstances and under strict supervision. The primary problem is that the disease spreads. Instead of a walkable city, which is how the Peninsula evolved 100 years ago along the UP track, we have one mega auto accessible region, from Reno to Monterey, characterized by parameters of pollution, traffic, crime, congestion, resource shortages, resource management issues (like stormwater from non permeable parking lots and related distance to crossing blocks- called environmental services) and global warming.

Jaywalking is criminalized only when auto use factors are the only crash factor parameters, such as crossing the street when the auto can't stop because its moving too fast for conditions (the later is also in the law!)