The complete Oxford English Dictionary traces the word jaywalker back to 1917 and labels it 'originally US'. There is a cross-reference to the word jay, which has a number of slang senses. The relevant one is 'a stupid or dull person, a simpleton. Also (as adjective) dull, unsophisticated; inferior, poor'. This is labelled 'US colloquial', and there is evidence of use from 1900. So persons who stupidly ignored traffic regulations were given (in Boston, it seems) this compact name.



Ever helpful, I am.

you have got to ask yourself though, what is more stupid, walking 100yds along a deserted street to cross at a crossing when there is nothing coming, or giving a ticket out to someone who does not do it.

One of the great imponderables, that is.

sorry, it just winds me up, they are so focused on this minor inconsequential crap they miss the bigger picture. i am trying to train my guy up, who is supposed to be training me and getting there slowly. one of the other lads commented the other day to him, that he has never known him have so many prisoners. THAT IS BECAUSE HE IS NOT WAITING ON A QUIET STREET FOR SOMEONE TO JAYWALK.

Rae's conducting a one man smackdown

If you want to me real live Super Troopers just take a drive through New Hampshire..... Cost me $300 for driving 80mph on i95 at night, and if I had not been totally subservient I would have probably been in for a orange jump suit and shackles.

It was fun trying to explain to him what state the UK was in. The girls (14, 16) were barely concealing their giggles in the back seat. I so wanted to say "it is in a right state and it was all down to ...."

I've found a couple of crossings here in Vancouver that have the red hand/white man thing, but it never changes!! I've run across the road a couple of times, when it was safe to do so, and I've noticed that drivers are very good about stopping for the eejit who looked right, then left (instead of left then right) and walked in front of them ...

Look for a button, that might help it change

I jaywalk all the time and have yet to get a ticket, and when I do I sing Breaking The Law by Judas Priest...Breakin tha law, Breakin tha law....

I don't know if this guy's article is correct, but I hope so because it seems much more sensible than a blanket ban on jaywalking:
http://spacing.ca/wire/?p=2497

There wasn't one! I watched the north/south lights go red, and waited for the little man, but nothing happened, so I waited for the eat/west lights to go red, and still nothing happened...

You sure? They're not at all obvious to me, I often stand for an age until I realise I should have pressed! I can't find a good pic but here's a Chicago one. Imagine that sign taken away, and the sticking out bit too, and would you spot the button?

There was a "lamppost" or whatever it was, but no button, I've noticed there are quite a few crossing with no buttons...

In Fredericton they turn on the white man when the lights change and then whistle a turn (different ones depending on which way you are crossing the grid). You have a button but it doesnt do much. No one really presses them with any expectation of getting over quicker

The crossings make noises like demented birds around here!