Red Phone: Jaywalking near school

“I have noticed more GPD working the the three-way stop at the corner of Wren and Farrell near Antonio Del Buono School. They have been pulling people over for rolling through the stop signs during school hours. I have no problem with that at all but I think they should start ticketing the number of jaywalkers who cross without any regard during the same school hours. The cross walk is only 30 feet away. I have seen numerous near misses with people just darting back and forth across the street. Most with strollers and small children. Shouldn’t they be ticketing them as well? P.S. I have not received a ticket.”

Red Phone: Dear Concerned Citizen, Red Phone fielded a question last year from a reader who had similar concern about potentially jaywalking at Glen View Elementary School.

People are allowed to cross a street if there is not a traffic stop light nearby as is the case with Antonio Del Buono, said GPD Sgt. Chad Gallacinao. The important thing is that they do so in a safe manner and yield to oncoming traffic, he said. 

“Jaywalking” is defined under Vehicle Code 21955 as crossing away from a crosswalk “between adjacent intersections controlled by traffic control signal devices or by police officers.” The actual fine for this infraction is $25, or about $100 after all the court costs have been added in, according to California Legal News (www.legal-news-california.tozerlaw.com).

Vehicle Code 21950 says a person can’t “suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle that is so close as to constitute an immediate hazard. No pedestrian may unnecessarily stop or delay traffic while in a marked or unmarked crosswalk.”

But drivers are still required to “exercise due care for the safety of any pedestrian upon a roadway,” according to the Vehicle Code. “The driver of a vehicle approaching a pedestrian within any marked or unmarked crosswalk shall exercise all due care and shall reduce the speed of the vehicle or take any other action relating to the operation of the vehicle as necessary to safeguard the safety of the pedestrian.”

So it is up to both the driver and the pedestrian to be safe when sharing the road.