I wish we were all really good jaywalkers. There may be some hardasses who think jaywalking is wrong because it’s against the law.
I sympathize with you; I used to think the same way. After I got my license, I didn’t speed for six months because I was convinced it was disrespectful to the governing authorities.
Then I realized that cars passing me on a two-lane road late at night because I was driving the posted 25 mph was probably more unsafe than me going a little faster. Similarly, I used to think jaywalking was bad. Then I came to college and realized that at UF it’s a way of life.
Jaywalking can be pretty efficient if you’re smart about it. I live down an alley behind The Courtyards, so I cross 13th Street at Second Avenue every day on my way to class. Once the traffic stops along 13th, the people turning left from Second Avenue get the green light. That means that I can do the half-jaywalk — come to almost the middle of the road so when all the left-turning cars are past, I can finish crossing. Worst case scenario, I’m halfway across the street when the Ampelmann turns white. I don’t even see the blinky red hand. And if the left-turning cars finish before their turn light does, I can make it onto campus before pedestrians are even cleared to walk.
So that’s smart jaywalking. My operating principle: Don’t make cars have to think about you. If you jaywalk across University Avenue, don’t chill out in the median for minutes.
It makes drivers nervous you’re going to jump the border like a desperate Mexican (not to say that they’re bad jaywalkers at all). I meet a friend at Jimmy John’s every week, and that takes some skill. I’m rarely actually at the crosswalk when the light turns green, but I don’t want to wait a whole cycle and slow the traffic down University Avenue by pressing the “I want to cross” button.
It’s in everyone’s best interest that I get across now. So I find a gap and get halfway, and then weave through the stopped cars. They’re not going anywhere.
It’s all a matter of efficiency. A lot of people who jaywalk also drive, and vice versa, which means in the long run, screwing people over by being inconsiderate will come back to bite you.
It’s the bad jaywalkers who give everyone a bum rap. There are the obvious cases: people who completely disregard oncoming traffic with the expectation that cars will stop, people who start crossing the street right when the red hand gets serious about you needing to stop, etc.
Then there are more complicated jaywalking blunders. For instance, some people don’t understand that the half-jaywalk trick only works for one side of the street.
If you try to walk halfway with the left-turning cars coming toward you, you’re getting in their way, not avoiding it. But with a little practice, jaywalking becomes a more natural skill.
I’ve jaywalked with a professor before and not even stopped our conversation about The Grapes of Wrath. We’re not dumb, just a little selfish sometimes.
So form a club, make some posters, get the word out. We can be the best jaywalkers in the country. There’s a sign along 13th Street right before campus that advertises how many pedestrians cars yielded to in the last week.
Whether the numbers are made up, I don’t know. And I think it’s a stupid idea, but the return question does inspire reflection: How many cars should pedestrians have yielded to in the last week? Hopefully one day we’ll have harmony between drivers and walkers and will be able to jaywalk in peace.
Will Penman is an English senior. His column appears weekly.
