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-   -   Should jaywalking be a punishable offence in India? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/62517-should-jaywalking-punishable-offence-india.html)

Jaywalking is an informal term used to refer to illegal or reckless pedestrian crossing of a roadway.

Day in and day out as a driver the important thing we have to take care is people walking on the roads. As a rule of thumb "Bigger your vehicle bigger is your mistake" .

We take walking on the road for granted and expect the vehicles to look out for us rather than we looking for the vehicle. This includes not walking on footpaths(wherever existent) , not walking on the left side of the road or not crossing the road at zebra crossings etc. These apart from being a traffic chokers can be sometimes fatal too.Unfortunately there does not seem to be a law against this. There is every law for safe driving but laws for safe walking is non-existent in India.

So on that note do you think should there be a law discouraging Jaywalking and make is offence at par with say parking in a no-parking zone.

Frequently on Notional Highway 17, there are people who simply jump out from the house / shop and cross the street, as if the road belongs to them. I have had several heart in mouth experiences stopping in time.

But then, we should have better roads too. On way to office, I have to cross one side of the road, stand on the median, and some times, walk along the median for about 10 m, since there is an exit from a busy building. The traffic will never stop on both sides simultaneously, and there is no zebra corssing anywhere in the vicinity.

In Hyderabad, there are a number of pedestrian overbridges built with tax payer's money. In spite of that people still cross the roads weaving dangerously through traffic. And most often people get rear ended trying to avoid hitting pedestrians. So it is not always that pedestrians don't have any options other than to jaywalk.

I am all for driver education and pedestrian education. But when they are not effective it is time to resort to sterner measures.

Not to mention the foot paths. Many don't use them, but ply on the road meant for vehicles. I have asked a few to make use of what the gov has provided.

First there should be proper crossing points/ zebra crossings with a rule enforced to use only those points to cross over. But, I'm not sure if the problem would be solved even then.

I strongly believe Jaywalking should be punished or fined, it leads to a lot of accidents which would have other wise never occured.

Certainly no. When I say no, it means "Currently NO". Why? First make sure the pedestrians has the "options" to cross the road. Then work on this.

There is no skywalk where it is needed, not enough subways etc. Once this is fixed, next would be to enforce it.

While jay-walking is definitely a pain for drivers, in cities like ours that are over-crowded and that do not have proper (or maintained) sub-ways, foot-path (believe me, a few roads in Chennai don't!), over-bridges (even if they are there, climbing stairs is a pain for a lot), or even proper pedestrian signals, it is to an extent unavoidable.

Unless infrastructure in form of subways/ over-bridges and footpath are in place, roads are fenced adequately on the sides and the middle (especially highways), we cannot get rid of jay-walking in a country as populous as ours.

EDIT:
@mjothi: Bang on! Our posts crossed each other!

Hell yes! Especially on the highways, when you are doing great speeds and someone crosses as if it were Lalbaug gardens forcing us to brake.
In one such incident, I rolled down the windows and when I approached the jaywalking woman, I said something which would make her think before doing that again.

Jaywalking should be equally serious crime as rash driving. It should be even more serious offense on highways.

In cities, it's a different ballgame.

First, there are no footpaths.
Second, if there is footpath, it is 3-4 feet wide one with peeled up tiles, garbage, dogs, beggars and electricity poles/trees in between, which makes it impossible to walk on it.
Third, if there is wide enough footpath, it is usurped by hawkers and shopkeepers.
AND Forth, if there is open and wide footpath, people love to walk on the road or jump in to cross the road at their will.

I have observed the following things for which they should be punished heavily
- Crossing the road with talking in Mobile
- Walking in the Road where there is foot path
- Crossing the road look at the Left side of the road. (Basic Common Sense)
- Observed many time that people not using Zebra Crossing which is just 10 FT away from them.
- Jumping the High Grill

Apart from that our traffic police are so callous that they dont do a fine who parked their car in the Nicely laid foot path. As a status symbol/convenient many of the shop keeper or residential people will park the car which eventually lead me to walk on the road instead of foot path.:Frustrati

Hi,

I was always under the impression that we should always walk on the right side of the road as it would be easy to guage the car coming towards you (on the left side).

This is especially true for roads with no footpaths (the ones that we have in our town).

I'm not sure even if we have infrasturcture, jaywalking will stop. Take a look at the Mumbai train stations. We have skywalks/overbridges but still people jump on to the tracks to reach the other platform.

Education is the key, People should realise its their own life's and others at stake when the show negligence in crossing roads.

In India we have rules and regulations for everything, but do people follow these rules, or are rules implemented strictly? In most cases no, so I guess even here making a rule would not solve the problem.

People have to be educated that traffic rules are made not for collecting fines (as is in most cases) but rules are made to save your life.

Classic example of this is wearing a helmet. Most of the people wear a helmet only on red lights that to on seeing a cop, as they will be challaned and not because a helmet may save their life.

Inspite of education the public on traffic signs and lane discipline, nothing seems to happen. So what are talking about Jay walking, even if we educate the public, you think it will ever get into their head! Never.

Just look at the other places all over world, where these things are taken seriously and all rules followed. In this lifetime, I dont think this will ever happen. Can you imagine total lane discipline, 1 car distance between each other, following traffic rules, etc.Wow may be in my dreams.

You still see 3-4 guys on a bike riding in front of the cop, and he just looks the other way. Ohi! I can keep going on. It never ends.
MERA BHARATH MAHAN.

Thats correct- pedestrians must keep to the right side of the road.
Option 3: No it is not a offence at all
Reason: If jay walking is banned, then where do I cross the road?