New York’s Jaywalking Crackdown Sure Seems Real
![NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 21: A police officer directs traffic at Union Square during a snowstorm on January 21, 2014 in New York City. Areas of the Northeast are predicted to receive up to a foot of snow in what may be the biggest snowfall of the season so far. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)](http://pixel.nymag.com/imgs/daily/intelligencer/2014/01/23/23-traffic-police.o.jpg/a_190x190.jpg)
Many of those citations were issued at one location: The intersection of 96th Street and Broadway, where three pedestrians have been killed so far this year,The Journal noted. "On Sunday, an increased number of NYPD officers patrolled the intersection, issuing five traffic tickets to vehicles and citing 18 pedestrians for jaywalking, the NYPD said." But the department offered no explanation for the increase, saying the numbers tended to change depending on traffic patterns.
In this city of 8.3 million, police only issued 630 jaywalking in all of 2013, The Journal reported. That is incredibly low compared to the number of people one can observe, in any given trip outside, crossing in the middle of the block or against the light. Many of us probably committed 630 individual acts of jaywalking all on our own last year.
The latest citation statistics would appear to support some City Council members' criticism of the perceived crackdown on Monday, when Councilman Mark Levine complained, "To go from no enforcement to this aggressive action was overkill." Indeed, for New Yorkers accustomed to ignoring the lights while on foot, pretty much any citations for jaywalking are going to feel like a crackdown.
No comments:
Post a Comment