As a religious follower of “Mysteries at the Museum”, last Friday
I naturally tuned in to see what it was all about.
Don Wildman was the one who suggested I visit Greenwood Cemetery (http://thequeenoff-ckingeverything.blogspot.com/2012/05/for-entrance-into-pearly-gates.html?m=1).
I never have any regrets following his lead.
It was during that episode where I found the latest topic
inspiration for this new blog series of ours. Today we learned the origin of
the term/concept of jaywalking.
Like the previous “Find Out Friday” post this topic also did not
occur to me until I saw this show. It is pieces of our daily life, like these,
which I never seem to examine until it is brought to my attention.
The official definition of jaywalking is: “to cross a street
carelessly or in an illegal manner so as to be endangered by traffic”. Sounds
simple enough.
For comparison, I also looked up this term on Urban Dictionary.
This is what they had to say: “When you cross the street through the middle and
not at the intersections were you are supposed to.”
Essentially it describes a person who is an inexperienced walker.
The reason a term like this was created was that with the dawn of the new
automobile age, people were getting killed in accidents. Having no prior
experience with having to share the road, people would walk into the street and
into trouble. There were no formal rules deciding who had the right of way. If
it had kept up there would have been a lot less of us.
There is some disagreement as to the date and site of the first
usage of this phrase but on average that would be somewhere between 1915 and
1924. The New York Times was one of the few places it was first seen.
Jaywalking is very much illegal with penalties ranging from
tickets and/or fines. It is a misdemeanor therefore if anyone would be jailed
for this crime the sentence would be under one year by definition, although I
have not yet found any such cases.
Of course I am only looking at jaywalking as an American.
Personally I do this a lot mostly as a means to cut out some distance, time,
and let’s face it- sweat on very hot days in New York City. Every time I do it
though I am aware I am breaking the law and even look around to see if there
are cops around. Thankfully I have yet to seen one that wants to slow down my
commute. I hope this post is not a jinx.
As for other parts of the world here is a short sample of the
penalties of jaywalkers:
·
France- “pedestrians used to be banned from crossing a street
outside zebra crossings if there was one within 50 metres; the fine was 4
euros. Since November 2010, drivers are required to give way to a pedestrian
crossing or showing the intention to cross where it is permitted.”
·
Serbia- “it is illegal to cross roads other than at pedestrian
crossings if there is a zebra crossing within 100 metres.”
·
Canada- “Toronto and Montréal, jaywalking is an offense and in
some cases, the practice had been fined frequently. Rob Ford- the former mayor of Toronto- had been previously
fined $109 for jaywalking in Coquitlam (part of Vancouver) while visiting the
funeral of a friend's mother.”
·
Mexico- “jaywalking is not illegal in Mexico. However, on the
Paseo de la Reforma, one of Mexico City‘s longest and most important avenues,
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, then the city‘s mayor, commissioned the
installation of concrete prisms along the avenue‘s central curb, to discourage
pedestrians from crossing the road.”
I wonder if Mexico has been successful. I know that if there is
concrete barrier low enough to cross over I would continue on jaywalking it to
work.
It appears “Mysteries at the Museum” has done it again. I learn
just as much if not more from watching television as I do from reading books.
Actually I believe I get a lot of the topics I want to read about from the
stories I hear on TV. Maybe not enough people are watching as much Travel
Channel or ID Discovery as I do. I highly recommend them both.
From this point on I hope my readers will post questions they want
answers to every Friday.
If I get more than one suggestion per week I will go with whatever
topic has the most requests.
I will always try to keep some ideas on the back burner as a
backup plan but I will be thrilled when I no longer have to use them.
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