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Tag Archive for: decriminalize jaywalking

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Blockbuster LA Times Investigation Shows Police Bias in Bike Stops

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An LA Times investigation of bicycle traffic stops since 2017 has put a spotlight, once again, on the need to remove armed officers from traffic enforcement. The two bills CalBike sponsored in 2021 to decriminalize common and safe walking and biking would have represented a step in that direction. However, although the Bicycle Safety Stop Bill and the Freedom to Walk Act got support from both houses of the legislature, the governor vetoed both bills, citing inaccurate safety statistics.

Disproportionate stops of Latino riders highlights the need to remove police from traffic enforcement

In addition to racism, the Times reporting uncovered bias against people who use bikes for transportation. Officers in Los Angeles perform searches four times more often during bike stops than when they stop someone driving a car or walking, even though bike stops are half as likely to end in an arrest.

The LA Times story makes clear that police officers were using bike stops as a pretext for a stop-and-frisk type of enforcement. Some key takeaways from the article:

  • The police searched 85% of riders they stopped, often while holding them in the back seat of a squad car.
  • Only 8% of the searches found illegal items.
  • Less than 6% of searches turned up drugs.
  • Police found weapons in less than 0.5% of bicycle searches.
  • The population of LA County is 50% Latino, but 70% of the bike riders stopped were Latino.
  • The police stopped the most riders (3,700) in East LA, a predominantly Latino neighborhood.
  • In wealthier, whiter Malibu, police have conducted only 80 bike stops since 2017. In some affluent areas, the numbers were even lower.

The data paint a clear picture of a police force acting on prejudice against Latino and Black residents who ride bikes, particularly in areas where most residents are people of color. As the article highlights, these communities have little safe bicycle infrastructure, so decades of systemic racism and neglect become a weapon to doubly punish people in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Discrimination against Latinos and people who bike for transportation or work

Although more than two-thirds of the bike traffic stops were of Latinos, that group had the lowest rate of illegal items—just 7.1%, compared to 10.5% among white bike riders. And these traffic stops have the potential to turn deadly, like the stop of Dijon Kizzee in 2020, a Black bike rider shot and killed by the police.

In a written response to questions The Times submitted, Lt. Lorena Rodriguez, a department spokeswoman, said riding a bike allows criminals “to traverse a neighborhood unnoticed, faster and safer than on foot, and additionally makes it easier to avoid police contact. We are not conducting traffic stops of persons obviously engaged in the use of a bicycle for exercise or amusement.”

Alene Tchekmedyian, Ben Poston, and Julia Barajas, L.A. sheriff’s deputies use minor stops to search bicyclists, with Latinos hit hardest, LA Times, 11/4/2021 [emphasis added]

The quote from the police spokesperson reveals the underlying prejudice: people, primarily Latino or BIPOC people, riding without spandex or fancy kits, are probably criminals. 

“I’m not quite sure how law enforcement can visually determine whether a person is choosing to ride to get to school, to get to work, for recreation, for exercise, to ease traffic congestion, to improve air quality — all reasons and manners of which people choose to ride a bicycle.”

LA County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, quoted in L.A. County supervisors seek to decriminalize bike violations after Times investigation, LA Times, 11/16/21

A 2019 study of attitudes about bicyclists among the general public found that 49% of people who drive view people on bikes as non-human and that dehumanization led them to act more aggressively toward cyclists. In other words, stereotyping and “othering” people on bikes make riders less safe. The LA Times reporting puts that in stark relief. For people of color, and their long history of “otherness,” riding a bike can be even more dangerous.

Barriers to changing traffic enforcement in California

The bike stops in LA did nothing to improve traffic safety, but they did target people of color for harassment. This latest information has added momentum to the movement to transfer traffic enforcement from the police to unarmed DOT personnel or automated cameras. 

While CalBike supports these initiatives (with caveats), it’s worth noting that these reformist strategies are certainly not without concern and complexity. For instance, these de-policing approaches have the potential to simply relocate or exacerbate policing and surveillance by other means, whether by deputizing ordinary bureaucrats or through technological devices.

In response to the LA Times investigation, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has made a welcome move to decriminalize biking on the sidewalk in areas with no bike lanes. Riding on the sidewalk was the pretext for 25% of the stops in East LA, which has few bike lanes. The supervisors have also asked the Sheriff’s Department to create a diversion program for people biking and walking to avoid fines and jail time. But state laws limit how far LA County can go to decriminalize safe biking and protect residents from racially-biased policing.

Berkeley was one of the first to reimagine traffic enforcement, voting in 2020 to create a new Department of Transportation to take over from the police. However, that change is illegal under current California law, as is speed detection by cameras. Advocates tried and failed to legalize camera speed detection in California this year. Still, there is growing momentum behind a potential 2022 bill to allow cities to take police out of traffic stops.

It’s clear that biased policing is a fact and that traffic stops are hazardous, especially for Black and Latino Californians. CalBike is asking Governor Newsom and CalSTA to listen to advocates and support concrete measures to de-police and decriminalize biking and walking in California.

Response From CalBike’s Executive Director to the Governor’s Vetoes of Bicycle and Pedestrian Bills

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In 2021, CalBike decided to sponsor two related bills that would have legalized walking midblock across an empty street (AB 1238, Ting) or biking carefully through a stop sign at an empty intersection (AB 122, Boerner Horvath). Our goal was to broaden and strengthen the movement for the dignity and safety of people who walk and bike. 

Despite the governor’s vetoes (see below), we made significant progress. More than 100 organizations and 3,000 people signed on in support of both bills. Your support made a difference.

The Bicycle Safety Stop Bill received bipartisan supermajority support. The Freedom to Walk Act started a national discussion about how we police walking in this country (covered in the New York Times and on NPR’s “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me”). 

Newsom’s veto messages cited solidarity with our cause, if not our proposals. In his veto of the Freedom to Walk Act, he said, “unequal enforcement of jaywalking laws and the use of minor offenses like it as a pretext to stop people of color … is unacceptable.” His veto of the Bicycle Safety Stop Bill cited his “full support of safe and equitable access to the state’s transportation network for bicyclists.” 

Unfortunately, the governor didn’t include specific proposals to accomplish these supposed commitments to our goals in either letter. And we are troubled by his reliance on biased SWITRS data to support conclusions about bicycle and pedestrian safety.

However, CalBike is part of a strong movement and public support for giving people the joyful option to bike safely. It’s affordable, healthy, neighborly, and sustainable. We’ve gained momentum, and we’ll use that to move us forward.  CalBike is advocating for significant increases in active transportation investment at the scale needed to make our streets safe for people who bike and walk. We’ll give the governor a real chance to achieve his stated goals, and we’ll build a strong coalition with increasing public support that will make it even harder for lawmakers to reject future proposals.

  • Dave Snyder, Executive Director, CalBike

What Governor Newsom Got Wrong About Biking and Walking

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On October 8, 2021, the governor vetoed two bills that CalBike had sponsored: The Bicycle Safety Stop Bill (AB 122, Boerner Horvath) and the Freedom to Walk Act (AB 1238, Ting). In both cases, he cited data collected by police and, therefore, marred by police biases. In 2021, it should be unacceptable to rely on police accounts when making decisions about public safety. On top of that, Newsom presented slices of data cherry-picked to support his vetoes.

Here’s why Governor Newsom’s statistics, and the conclusions he reached, were misleading, disingenuous, and just plain wrong.

The governor’s defective data on biking

bikes should be able to treat stop signs as yields

The governor’s veto of the Bicycle Safety Stop demonstrates how inaccurate reporting of bike crashes harms bike safety efforts. The governor cited statistics from the Statewide Integrated Traffic Reporting System (SWITRS), California’s database of crash reports compiled by police departments around the state. It is the only official source of data about the cause of traffic crashes. 

In his veto message, Newsom’s claim that 88% of the people killed while biking past a stop sign were at fault displays a fundamental failure to understand safe bicycling or account for the anti-bike bias that is endemic to policing. And, unfortunately, police have only the car driver’s word for what happened after they have killed someone on a bike. 

For example, when Amelie le Moullac was killed in San Francisco by a truck turning right into her path, the police report faulted the bicyclist for running into the side of the truck. SFPD didn’t even bother to look for evidence to back up this anti-bike assumption. It was the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition that found camera footage of the crash, proving that Ms. le Moullac was standing legally in the bike lane when the truck turned into her. 

According to SWITRS, people on bikes and walking are constantly throwing themselves in front of law-abiding drivers and suffering death and injury as a result. 

SWITRS data is unreliable. Police aren’t trained in the choices people on bikes make to ensure their safety, and they then make assumptions about who is at fault in a crash based on preconceived ideas about bicyclists’ bad behavior. Unfortunately, this unverified information influences policy debates throughout California. When the media reports on a controversial bike safety improvement, reporters cite SWITRS that claims half of all bike crashes are the bicyclist’s fault. That false statistic reduces the political will to take the actions needed to truly make the streets safe for people on bikes. 

Cherry-picked pedestrian data leads Newsom to the wrong conclusion

In his veto statement for the Freedom to Walk Act, the governor used CHP talking points to blur the truth about what really makes pedestrians most vulnerable: prioritizing fast-moving cars and trucks over human life. People walking don’t stand a chance when two tons of steel take ownership of public streets, and crashes are considered the collateral damage of modern life. 

jaywalking Legalize Safe Street Crossings

The biggest problem with Newsom’s cherry-picked SWITRS data is that he didn’t include ALL pedestrian crashes. He just cited fatalities, but fatal crashes represent only a small share of the accidents where cars hit pedestrians, and using this figure gives a distorted picture of street safety.

When you look at all crashes involving a car and a pedestrian, it becomes clear that it’s not those crossing outside of crosswalks that are at most danger. California’s own data show that 44% of all pedestrian crashes occur when someone is “crossing at a crosswalk in an intersection.” Almost 70% of collisions involving pedestrians are caused by the driver disregarding a traffic law. 

In addition, SWITRS data is drawn from accident reports prepared by the police, who have a notoriously anti-pedestrian bias. It’s not surprising that police would find pedestrians at fault for “taking actions against traffic controls or safety laws” in 63% of fatal crashes. Police, and our society at large, don’t place enough responsibility on car drivers to share the road responsibly with other road users.

When did the penalty for walking outside of proscribed pedestrian boundaries become a death sentence?

It is inaccurate for the governor, using arguments from the CHP, to insinuate that illegal crossings are the reason for rising pedestrian fatality rates. There’s no evidence of a rise in jaywalking correlated with an increase in pedestrian fatalities. In fact, recent data from the state of Virginia shows the opposite. After the state decriminalized jaywalking earlier this year, initial data indicates that it hasn’t made pedestrians less safe.  

But there is a correlation that increased distracted driving and a trend toward higher front grills, mainly on trucks and SUVs, which reduce visibility for drivers and increase the deadliness of car-pedestrian crashes that correlates with this increase. 

Also, it is not surprising that the most deadly crashes happen outside of crosswalks, where drivers travel at much higher speeds.

How to get accurate accident data

The prevalence of faulty data in these reports is also an argument for reducing the police role in traffic crash reporting. The movement to refocus police energy away from such activities is growing. For instance, the City of Berkeley is considering transferring that duty to its Transportation Department to allow police officers to focus more on crimes they are better equipped to deal with, an initiative that CalBike supports. 

Fact-checking SWITRS accident reports would go a long way toward changing the narrative about who causes the most harm on our street. But it will be a big job to comb through the data, investigate the facts, and prepare more truthful reports. Still, it’s a critical job.  If you know someone willing to analyze the SWITRS data and provide more accurate accident data, contact Jared Sanchez at jared@calbike.org.

Newsom Vetoes Freedom to Walk in California

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For Immediate Release: October 11, 2021

Contact:
CalBike: Jared Sanchez, jared@calbike.org |  714-262-0921
California Walks: Caro Jauregui, caro@calwalks.org | 562-320-2139
Los Angeles Walks: John Yi, john@losangeleswalks.org | 213-219-2483

Newsom Vetoes Freedom to Walk in California

Movement to End Unjust Jaywalking Laws Will Continue

SACRAMENTO – In a setback for the movement for more equitable streets, Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed the Freedom to Walk Act (AB 1238, Ting). The law would have ended penalties for safe mid-block pedestrian crossings. CalBike and a coalition of more than 90 groups and individuals supported the repeal of ‘jaywalking’ laws.

“The governor’s veto rests on the belief that police enforcement or the threat of jaywalking tickets will somehow prevent pedestrian fatalities in the future when that has consistently failed in the past. Continuing to criminalize people’s rational, predictable responses to poor infrastructure is simply unjust,” said Jared Sanchez, CalBike Senior Policy Advocate.

Inequities in neighborhood design and street infrastructure leave many lower-income California neighborhoods less than pedestrian-friendly. Because of this, policing jaywalking often amounts to punishing people for the lack of government services in their community. 

Legalizing mid-block crossings would have helped protect vulnerable pedestrians against racially biased, pretextual policing, inequitable fees and fines, and unnecessary and potentially lethal interactions with law enforcement.

John Yi, Executive Director of Los Angeles Walks, said, “The Governor’s recent veto represents continued condescension of pedestrians. To think we can penalize our parents, seniors, and students to bow to high-speed traffic at the cost of their own dignity, ease, and safety is draconian and deeply misunderstands the needs of those walking every day. We cannot begin to ask why it is we jaywalk if we are already criminals in the eyes of the state.”

“This is a tremendous loss not only for racial justice across California but also for active transportation as a whole as Governor Newsom failed to recognize the importance of non-automobile modes of travel,” said CalBike’s Sanchez. “But the Freedom to Walk Act has helped spark a national conversation about unjust jaywalking laws that can’t be stopped by one misguided veto.”

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California Can Lead the Way in Reclaiming our Streets if Newsom Signs AB 1238

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It was the middle of the afternoon in Culver City when Richard Milton left his optometrist to reach the bus stop across the street. “It was in the middle of the block,” he recalled. “There wasn’t any traffic, so I crossed.”

As he walked toward the bus stop, a police car pulled up, and an officer asked Milton, a 66-year-old Black Army veteran, where he was going. Milton said he was headed for the bus stop. The officer wrote him a ticket for jaywalking. 

“I just remained mute as he wrote me the ticket,” he said.

What is a ‘jay’ anyway?

“Jaywalking” was invented by auto clubs and car manufacturers 100 years ago. At that time, ‘jay’ was an offensive term to describe an unsophisticated country person. 

If someone invented the term today, we might call it “redneck crossings” or “hickwalking.” If those terms sound shocking and rude, that’s the point. We’ve gotten used to the word jaywalking, but we should remember that automakers used prejudice and stigma to enforce a street culture that favored driving over walking. Over time, ‘jaywalking’ has also come to carry racist undertones, as enforcement focuses mainly on policing the movements of Black Americans. 

“In the early days of the automobile, it was drivers’ job to avoid you, not your job to avoid them,” says Peter Norton, a historian at the University of Virginia and author of Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City. “But under the new model, streets became a place for cars — and as a pedestrian, it’s your fault if you get hit.”

Jaywalking still reinforces prejudice

jaywalking night

Richard Milton’s race was likely a factor in his traffic stop for jaywalking. CalBike’s data review shows that Black Californians are as much as 4.3 times as likely to get stopped for jaywalking than white residents. 

A recent lawsuit filed for bias against Black people on Rodeo Drive underscores that point. The suit (plaintiffs’ attorneys include Benjamin Crump, who represented George Floyd’s family) alleges that, out of 106 people arrested by a Beverly Hills Police task force in the area, 105 were Black, and one was Latino and appeared Black. Those figures don’t include people stopped and hassled by the police, though there is a video of at least one Black man (a VP at Versace) being stopped and frisked as he left the Rodeo Drive store.

Jaywalking tickets also have unequal impacts. Milton’s citation was for more than $190, which was money he didn’t have. He was fortunate to have access to a program out of Venice that provides volunteer attorneys to represent people who are issued citations. His attorney discovered that the officer had written the wrong code on the citation and had the ticket voided.

Even if he hadn’t had access to an attorney, Milton would have gone to court to fight the ticket because unpaid tickets can keep you from renewing your driver’s license and cause other problems. “It’s a nuisance to have it hanging over your head,” he said.

Intersections are often the least safe places to cross the street

When asked if his run-in with the police has changed his behavior around jaywalking, Milton said, “I still jaywalk.”

“In LA, intersections are bad. They are very bad,” he added. “You see cars coming at you, even though you have the green light.” Then he repeated “It’s not safe,” several times for emphasis.

intersections are often unsafe for pedestrians

In fact, the midblock crossing wasn’t simply the most convenient way to get across the street for Richard Milton. It was a conscious choice for his safety, based on his own harrowing experience.

He knows what he’s talking about. He has been hit by a car twice while walking, both times in the crosswalk. He was fortunate to have suffered only minor injuries, but he has friends who have been seriously injured in crosswalks. 

Milton’s concern is backed by statistics. CalBike’s analysis of SWITRS collision data found that 44% of pedestrian collisions in California occurred at intersections. Another study found that, while a quarter of pedestrian injures happen during mid-block crossings, 75% occur elsewhere, including intersections (26%), sidewalks, and the margins of roadways without sidewalks. 

Milton doesn’t see the sense of penalizing somebody for choosing the safest way to cross the street based on their experience. If someone made it to the other side of the road and didn’t cause any harm, he said, “Why criminalize them?”

California has a chance to take the lead in reimagining our streets

California was at the forefront of the car-centric movement to chase people on foot out of the roadway. As a recent LAist article noted, LA passed its first jaywalking law in 1925. LA’s laws became a model for the rest of the country. Now, California has the opportunity to lead in the other direction toward a more pedestrian-friendly future.

Already this year, Virginia made jaywalking a secondary offense. It’s still a crime, but an officer can’t initiate a stop because of jaywalking and can’t issue a citation unless they stop you for something else. But the Freedom to Walk Act (AB 1238, Ting) would go a step further in the right direction. It would make safe mid-block crossings legal. 

Today, the only thing that stands between California and the freedom to walk is the governor’s signature. If Governor Newsom signs AB 1238, it will still be against the law to disrupt traffic, but people who safely cross, like Richard Milton, will no longer get stopped, questioned, and ticketed by the police. Tell the Governor you support the Freedom to Walk Act, AB 1238.

jaywalking Legalize Safe Street Crossings

CalBike Scores Wins in Sacramento for Californians Who Bike and Walk 

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California’s legislative session has ended with several big accomplishments for active transportation. CalBike’s signature E-Bike Affordability Program is fully funded and in development. And the two other bills we sponsored this year have passed the Assembly and the Senate, which have placed a spotlight on the need to decriminalize the bicycle safety stop and jaywalking. 

In 2021, California became the first state to offer e-bike subsidies. And the legislature passed bills to decriminalize safe biking and walking.

We don’t know if Governor Newsom will sign our outstanding bills (we hope he does), but we want to take a moment to savor the forward momentum for people who bike and walk in California.

More affordable e-bikes

Bicycle advocacy in Sacramento can be frustrating. Trying to explain the joy and efficiency of getting around by bike to people who only see the world through the windshield of an automobile is sometimes a steep uphill pedal. Fortunately, this year, the California legislature showed that it understands the value of e-bikes to fight climate change.

Kids on e-bike

Electric cars get most of the attention and funding as a solution for climate change, even though electric bikes are the greenest transportation options. Electric bikes are accessible and healthful transport for people who aren’t physically able to ride a standard bike, carry heavy loads or passengers, or need to ride farther and faster than a traditional bike can take them. Plus, e-bikes have been shown to replace car trips, so they provide excellent low-carbon transport. 

But e-bikes are much more expensive than classic bikes, so they often aren’t accessible to the people who need them most. CalBike has been working for the past several years on programs to make e-bikes more affordable. SB 400 (Umberg), passed in 2019, added electric bikes to the Clean Cars 4 All program. However, the rollout was hampered by the pandemic. And, while the program offers generous incentives, only people with a qualifying car to surrender could participate. We knew we needed to do more to help Californians get on e-bikes.

So we rolled out an ambitious campaign to get $10 million for e-bike subsidies through the budget process and AB 117 (Boerner Horvath). The legislature and the governor have agreed to a $10 million budget for e-bike purchase incentives. The program will launch by July 1, 2022. CalBike is working with the California Air Resources Board to develop its guidelines. 

Our goal is to help get e-bikes into the hands of approximately 10,000 Californians who would benefit the most from electric bikes. That includes people who need utility bikes, bikes for carrying children, folding bikes, and bikes for people with disabilities. We are working hard to support a multi-faceted program that will meet the needs of these Californians and more. Sign up to find out when e-bike grants are available.

Common sense wins: the legislature endorses the Bicycle Safety Stop 

The Bicycle Safety Stop Bill (AB 122, Boerner Horvath) will make it legal for people on bikes to treat stop signs as yields. Riders will legally do what most of us already do: slow down when approaching a stop sign and stop, if needed, to let other traffic and pedestrians cross. If the intersection is clear, bike riders can pedal through without stopping.

Idaho, Delaware, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Arkansas, Utah, Oklahoma, and North Dakota have already made this commonsense bicycle maneuver legal. This year, the legislature signaled that it’s time for California to join the movement for sensible bike laws. That’s thanks in no small part to the many of you who emailed your representatives in support of AB 122.

We hope this will be the year California passes the Bicycle Safety Stop Bill, but we have not heard from the governor that he’ll sign it. Please contact Governor Newsom and tell him to sign AB 122.

California poised to be a leader by legalizing safe street crossings

As a recent LAist article noted, everyone jaywalks. Jaywalking is an invented offense, put on the books a century ago to clear the streets for early (and very unsafe) car drivers. The new “crime” was designed to shift the blame in a crash from a negligent driver to the person walking.

jaywalking Legalize Safe Street Crossings

CalBike’s Freedom to Walk Act (AB 1238, Ting) would make California one of the first states to reclaim the right of pedestrians to cross the street safely, repealing century-old jaywalking laws that made such crossings technically illegal. It will still be illegal to run out into traffic, but safe mid-block crossings would no longer be crimes. Virginia and Nevada have already enacted limited jaywalking decriminalization measures this year.

CalBike co-sponsored this bill with our partners California Walks, LA Walks, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. Our streets can’t truly be safe until everyone is safe. The Freedom to Walk Act recognizes that street safety requires better infrastructure plus freedom from dangerous police encounters that too often end badly for BIPOC folks.

Getting this bill through the legislature was a hard-won victory. Legislators and law enforcement groups raised safety concerns, especially since pedestrian fatalities have been rising in recent years. However, our current jaywalking laws have done nothing to protect pedestrians. Decriminalizing jaywalking will free lawmakers and police to address the true causes of traffic violence (hint: it’s the people inside the two-ton machines, not the people outside them). 

Jaywalking laws let reckless drivers off the hook for killing and injuring pedestrians and give police a pretext to harass Black Californians, who are cited at a rate as much as five times higher than white people—even though everybody jaywalks. 

We are grateful that lawmakers understood the importance of legalizing safe street crossings and ending outdated and unjust laws. Their action is the first step in making California streets safe for all of us.

Governor Newsom can make California a leader in stepping boldly into that future by signing the Freedom to Walk Act. California will be the first state in the nation to repeal unjust jaywalking laws, which could be the start of an overdue trend. AB 1238 has already added to a growing national discussion about the need to decriminalize jaywalking.

We hear that the governor is under pressure to veto this critical bill. If he hears from enough constituents who support it, that could help him get to yes. Tell Governor Newsom to legalize safe street crossings.

More wins and losses for people who bike, active transportation, and climate-friendly communities

California’s legislative session ended on September 10. It was a mixed year for the other transportation and climate bills CalBike supported or was following. Some excellent legislation didn’t make it, but some visionary measures passed both houses. Read our full recap.

CA Freedom to Walk Act Passes Senate

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For Immediate Release: 9/8/21

Contact:
CalBike: Jared Sanchez, jared@calbike.org |  714-262-0921
California Walks: Caro Jauregui, caro@calwalks.org | 562-320-2139
Los Angeles Walks: John Yi, john@losangeleswalks.org | 213-219-2483

CA Freedom to Walk Act Passes Senate

SACRAMENTO – The Freedom to Walk Act, a bill designed to reform California’s “Jaywalking” laws, passed the California Senate today with a vote of 22-8.

AB 1238, which would make it legal for pedestrians in California to cross mid-block provided they don’t interfere with traffic, was authored by Assemblymember Phil Ting of San Francisco. CalBike and a coalition of more than 90 groups and individuals support the repeal of ‘jaywalking’ laws.

AB 1238 will not change existing laws that require pedestrians to avoid potentially hazardous situations on the roadway. Instead, it legalizes the safe street crossings that pedestrians make every day. Everybody ‘jaywalks’—nobody should be penalized for a safe street crossing.

Jared Sanchez, CalBike Senior Policy Advocate, said, “CalBike applauds the Senate for supporting this crucial legislation to make California’s streets safer and more accessible for everyone. We will now work with Governor Newsom to secure his support for the freedom to walk.”

Inequities in neighborhood design leave lower-income neighborhoods less pedestrian-friendly than others. Because of this, policing jaywalking often amounts to punishing people for the lack of government services and improper land use planning in their community. People should not be penalized for decades of infrastructure neglect and auto-first street design. AB 1238 will help protect vulnerable pedestrians against racially biased, pretextual policing, inequitable fees and fines, and unnecessary and potentially lethal interactions with law enforcement.

“The Freedom to Walk Act legalizes safe walking,” Sanchez said. “Governor Newsom now has a chance to advance racial justice by repealing jaywalking laws. In the absence of safe and accessible pedestrian infrastructure, residents do their best to access school, work, grocery stores, or parks. Continuing to criminalize rational, predictable responses to poor infrastructure is unjust,” 

Also, enforcing low-level infractions, like ‘jaywalking,’ can have a substantial cost for law enforcement. So, decriminalizing safe street crossings has the potential to conserve considerable resources for agencies across the state.

The Freedom to Walk Act WILL NOT:

  • Make it legal to obstruct traffic or endanger other road users.
  • Send crowds of pedestrians into the streets. People who walk have the same common sense and desire for self-preservation as anyone else. Pedestrians will continue to do what they already do: assess traffic conditions and cross when it’s safe to do so.
  • Lead to increased hazards for walkers. Reckless driving and unfriendly infrastructure are the main dangers that pedestrians face. There is no evidence that jaywalking laws help pedestrians and the laws do nothing to solve those problems.
  • Take money from local coffers. Many jaywalking fines are never collected, so the cost of police and administrative time for enforcement is often higher than the money collected.

The Freedom to Walk Act WILL:

  • Legalize common, safe street crossings that most Californians make regularly.
  • Reduce potentially lethal police interactions for Black Californians.
  • Free low-income people from the financial burden of jaywalking fines and fees.
  • Allow police officers to spend their time more effectively, increasing public safety.

Bill to End Fines for Safe Street Crossings Moves to CA Senate Floor for Final Vote

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The Freedom to Walk Act passed out of the California Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday. We’re thrilled lawmakers agreed that, as a state, we should stop raising revenue from our most marginalized and vulnerable residents.

Two more steps to legalize safe street crossings

There are two more crucial steps before we repeal unjust jaywalking laws, and we’ll need your help to get there.

First, the Freedom to Walk Act will need a majority vote on the Senate Floor in the next few weeks. The bill needs 21 votes to pass. Please email your California Senator today and ask them to vote YES to legalize safe walking. 

Second, the bill needs Governor Newsom’s signature. If/when it passes the Senate, we’ll need help to let the governor know that Californians support ending unjust jaywalking laws.

Legitimate concerns about decriminalizing jaywalking

Nationally, pedestrian traffic deaths grew by 46% from 2010 to 2019, a much larger increase than all other vehicle-caused fatalities. The effects have fallen disproportionately on Black Americans, who now suffer a higher rate of pedestrian fatalities than other ethnic groups. It makes sense to be concerned about pedestrian safety and to hesitate to make any change that will make pedestrians more vulnerable. 

However, there’s no reason to believe that jaywalking laws are preventing additional pedestrian deaths. Bloomberg CityLab reported that only 26% of severe pedestrian injuries occur during mid-block crossings. Another 25% of collisions involving pedestrians happen in crosswalks. And fully 50% of serious pedestrian crash injuries happen in other locations, including cars running up on the sidewalk and people hit while tending to their car by the side of the road. 

“New data from the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) projects that 2020 had the largest ever annual increase in the rate at which drivers struck and killed people on foot. What drove this surge? The likely culprits are dangerous driving like speeding, drunk and drugged driving, and distraction, which were rampant on U.S. roads during the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with infrastructure issues that have prioritized the movement of motor vehicles over walking and bicycling for many years.”

May 20, 2021, press release from the GHSA
speed kills chart smart growth america
Chart created by Smart Growth America

Pedestrians, like most road users, use self-interest to guide their actions. After all, running out into the street could have lethal consequences for someone on foot. And, while young children aren’t always capable of making good decisions about street crossings, what keeps them safe is parental supervision, not jaywalking laws.

Rising pedestrian injuries and fatalities are a legitimate concern that policymakers should address. But jaywalking laws aren’t the solution. California has enforced the existing jaywalking laws for the past 10 years while pedestrian fatalities soared. To protect people who walk, we must look at the true causes of the rising toll on pedestrians.

For example, it’s no accident that the upward trend in pedestrian deaths has matched the increase in popularity of SUVs. Higher front grills make them more lethal to people on foot, and increasingly tall front ends create large front blind spots. Testing and rating the crash safety of cars for people outside the vehicle as well as inside would be an excellent first step towards increasing pedestrian safety.

SUV sales chart smart growth america
Chart created by Smart Growth America

In addition, as the GHSA noted, our built environment has for years prioritized the movement of motorized vehicles over the safety of people on foot and on bikes. Making pedestrian safety paramount in street repaving projects will do more to prevent pedestrian deaths than criminalizing walking on poorly-designed streets where jaywalking is sometimes the safest option.

Listen to the experts: people who walk

It’s critical to look at who stands on both sides of this issue. Local police departments and the CHP have exerted pressure against AB 1238. They witness the worst-case scenarios and that, along with the idea that enforcement and punishment keep people safe, shapes their view of jaywalking. 

Police see the pedestrian under the influence who stepped into a busy street and got hit. They don’t see the much more common crossings that people make in every California community every day: people walking safely, taking the most logical routes to their destinations, often using a mid-block crossing to get where they need to go.

Jaywalking laws can’t prevent the tragedy of an impaired person making an unsafe crossing. And they don’t stop careless drivers from hitting pedestrians in crosswalks and on sidewalks, which is where two-thirds of accidents that involve pedestrians take place, according to our analysis of SWITRS crash data. In almost all of those collisions, the car driver is at fault.

Our lawmakers should listen to the voices of the people who walk every day and their advocates. They should listen to over 100 organizations that signed on in support of the Freedom to Walk Act, to the supporters of racial justice who understand that jaywalking laws have been and will continue to be a significant pretext for biased policing.

Police will claim that jaywalking laws cause people to walk in predictable patterns, which allows all users to share the road more safely. However, since the driver is at fault in most pedestrian fatalities, the safety conversation should focus on the behavior of car drivers, not people on foot.

Enforcement of jaywalking laws doesn’t deter mid-block crossings, but it does reinforce privilege because poor and Black people are much more likely to get ticketed and harassed. 

Here’s a thought experiment: notice where you walk over the next few days. Do you always find a crosswalk or, when there’s no traffic, do you sometimes cross mid-block? Everybody jaywalks — and that probably includes you.

Better ways to protect pedestrians

CHP officers and local police witness firsthand the horrific results when a car hits a pedestrian at speed. Naturally, they want California laws to prevent as many devastating collisions as possible, so we can understand why some police organizations don’t want to see the Freedom to Walk Act become law.

However, if police, policymakers, and elected officials want to protect pedestrians from harm, there are much better ways to do that than jaywalking tickets. For example, they could support AB 43, which gives communities more options to lower speed limits. Reducing speed is one of the best ways to save lives: at 20 mph, a pedestrian has a 95% chance of surviving being hit by a car. At 40 mph, the survival rate is just 15%.

AB 1147 is another terrific pedestrian safety measure. The bill would change how planners write regional transportation plans, prioritizing alternative transportation options, including walking and biking. A 15-minute neighborhood is a community that gives people ways to walk safely to their local destinations.

For more reasons to legalize safe street crossings, we’ve got answers to your questions about the Freedom to Walk Act.

Why California Should Decriminalize Jaywalking

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This year, CalBike is sponsoring the Freedom to Walk Act (AB 1238, Ting), which will take jaywalking laws off the books in California. We realize that people have questions about why this legislation is critical for equity, justice, and accessibility. In partnership with the bill’s other co-sponsors, California Walks and Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, we answer the most common questions about the Freedom to Walk Act.

Why do we need to reform the way pedestrians cross the street? 

  • Safe walking should not be criminalized. 
  • Jaywalking laws lead to unjust enforcement and burdensome fines and fees. 
  • Jaywalking laws give rise to pretextual policing. 
  • Pedestrian infrastructure is inadequate, especially in low-income communities and communities of color. Jaywalking rules tend to punish people for what is actually a collective failure to invest in our neighborhoods. 

Won’t removing jaywalking laws make the streets less safe for pedestrians? 

  • No. In fact, removing jaywalking laws will make it safer for pedestrians, especially Black, brown,  and low-income pedestrians, by ending unnecessary police encounters that can lead to police  brutality.1 
  • People will still be prohibited from crossing the street in reckless or hazardous ways.
  • Most crashes involving pedestrians are due to drivers violating traffic laws. 
  • Even if jaywalking were unsafe (in almost all cases, it is not), tickets and fines have no deterrent effect, so getting rid of them won’t increase jaywalking.  

How will decriminalizing jaywalking affect the safety of children and the elderly? 

  • Children under 13 are typically supervised by an adult when crossing the street. This bill will not affect the guardian’s responsibility to ensure that children cross the road safely.  
  • California empowers teenagers to make decisions far more complex than how to cross the street.  If we can trust teenagers can drive, we can trust them to assess when crossing the road will be an immediate hazard. Like anyone else, if they do not exercise good judgment, they will be subject to citation. 
  • This bill will increase the safety of Black and brown youth, who are often targeted by  police for jaywalking.2 
  • The elderly are just as rational and logical as any other adult. Regardless of the Freedom to Walk Act,  they will choose to cross the street only when they conclude that it is safe for them to do so. 

1 See, for instance, the tragic death of two Black pedestrians in 2018 and 2020, Chinedu Okobi and Kurt Reinhold. 

2 See, for example, this account of police officers in Kern County using jaywalking laws as a pretext to stop, harass, and attack four high-school students.

Why should California change pedestrian traffic laws and not similar laws for motorists? 

  • Driving is a privilege; walking is a right. 
  • Drivers cause most pedestrian crashes, so driver enforcement needs to be addressed before pedestrian enforcement. Recent Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS) data shows that driver violations account for over two-thirds of pedestrian crashes.  
  • Motor vehicles cause the most harm on our roads (due to weight and speed) and generate the most serious consequences.  
  • Jaywalking laws were invented after motor vehicles began to dominate the right-of-way. They were a tool to limit pedestrian access to the right-of-way and constrain pedestrian activity. It remains the case that jaywalking laws have more to do with protecting the dominance of cars than they do with pedestrian safety.  
  • Motorists already have substantial protection from laws that they routinely disobey. The ‘speed trap’ law prohibits the enforcement of speed limits that most motorists exceed. AB 1238 merely extends to pedestrians that same protection against enforcement of a law that is routinely and safely disobeyed. 

Would legalizing jaywalking undermine pedestrian safety? 

  • No. Speeding, busier roads, increasingly distracted drivers, lack of safe pedestrian infrastructure, and other driving or road factors are the biggest threats to pedestrian safety. Mid-block crossings or crossing against the light where no cars are coming doesn’t endanger pedestrians.
  • Unless we take measures to improve street safety and calm traffic, pedestrian crashes will continue to rise. Rather than responding by limiting and punishing pedestrian activity, we should address the factors that actually give rise to these increased crashes.  
  • Studies suggest that the design of modern SUVs and trucks is now one of the main culprits in pedestrian fatalities. Higher grills give drivers large front blind spots and cause more severe injuries during collisions with people on foot.

Don’t jaywalking tickets provide important revenue for state and local governments? 

  • Jaywalking fines and fees are especially difficult to collect. 
  • Jaywalking citations are disproportionately distributed in low-income neighborhoods; in  Bakersfield, for instance, only 17% of census tracts have a median income below  $37,404, yet 92% of jaywalking citations were imposed in these low-income tracts. 
  • Those cited for jaywalking are likely to be indigent, so research suggests that collection efforts are much less likely to be successful.  
  • Aside from the difficulty collecting jaywalking fines, it is simply not equitable for state and local governments to rely on our lowest-income residents for revenue generation.
  • Revenue enhancement should never be a reason for the enforcement of laws. Public safety should. 

If you support the repeal of unjust and illogical jaywalking laws, tell your California Senator to vote YES on AB 1238, the Freedom to Walk Act.

Advocates and Elected Officials Urge Senate Appropriations Committee to Pass Jaywalking Repeal

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On July 14, 2021, CalBike joined more than 90 others to send a letter to Senator Anthony J. Portantino, Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, asking him to move the Freedom to Walk Act (AB 1238, Ting) forward. The bill, which will repeal California’s unjust jaywalking laws, is currently in the suspense file at the Appropriations Committee. Unless it comes off suspense, this crucial piece of legislation won’t get to the full Senate for a vote. 

The Senate Appropriations Committee evaluates the budget implications of each bill. The committee appropriately passed one of CalBike’s other bills, the Bicycle Safety Stop (AB 122, Boerner Horvath), because allowing people on bikes to treat stop signs as yields will have little or no impact on the state budget. However, any bill with fiscal implications of $50,000 or more is automatically placed in suspense. The bill’s author and supporters advocate for it to come off suspense and get a committee vote. The committee, especially the Appropriations Chair, has the power of life or death over the bills that reach them. If a bill doesn’t come off suspense, it dies in Appropriations. That’s why it’s so crucial that the Chair should allow the Freedom to Walk Act to come off suspense and get a vote.

The letter to Senator Portantino, which was signed by California and national NGOs, and elected representatives from California communities, urges the fiscal committee to support the Act’s critical social implications, in light of the major hidden social costs of pretextual policing and racism.

How to correctly calculate the fiscal impact of ending jaywalking tickets

It might seem obvious that the Freedom to Walk Act will negatively impact California’s budget by removing a revenue source. However, the truth is more complex. Police don’t write a jaywalking ticket when someone in a wealthy suburb makes a mid-block crossing to visit a neighbor. People in disadvantaged neighborhoods are more likely to be ticketed for jaywalking, particularly because their communities are less likely to have adequate infrastructure. 

Because of this, as we note in our letter, the dollar amount of fines levied for jaywalking doesn’t provide an accurate accounting of the fiscal impact of AB 1238. In fact, the Judicial Council of California estimates that less than 15% of the fines are collectible. 

Besides, any consideration of the financial impact needs to offset the revenue from jaywalking tickets by the cost of police time to write the tickets and the cost of collection efforts. When you add those factors, jaywalking citations may be a net loss for the state. 

Jaywalking tickets also create harms that are harder to quantify. If someone can’t pay the fine, the penalties for nonpayment can lead to cascading damages. The burden of this unnecessary debt is borne by both society and the state, as well as the individual and their family.

Jaywalking fines and penalties extend racist policies from the past, and it’s time for them to end

Black Californians are as much as four times more likely to be ticketed for jaywalking than their white neighbors. Jaywalking citations perpetuate a system of racial oppression that diminishes all of us without making our streets safer. Jaywalking citations, in effect, are one of the many ways our criminal justice system raises revenue on the backs of the most oppressed. This must end.

Ending unjust jaywalking laws is an essential step towards building a just and equitable California. CalBike and our allies ask the Senate Appropriations Committee to do the right thing and send the Freedom to Walk Act to the full Senate for a vote.

Read the letter to Senator Portantino.

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