Cops Are Cracking Down On Jaywalkers Now
New York City only has a few sacred institutions. One of them is pizza that you do not have to dip into butter to taste good, and the other is jaywalking. In other cities, cars are king and jaywalking is a death wish. You wait for that little green man or you’re taking your life in your hands. In New York, pedestrians are a major force, and they will not be stopped by such petty concerns as traffic lights. Do you know anyone in your life who actually waits every time for the light to turn here? I doubt it. And yet, the NYPD have been shifting their focus away from ticketing bicyclists and towards writing up jaywalkers.
Tickets to bicyclists are down nearly 25 percent through the end of November, the Post reports, which, no doubt, has something to do with many fair weather cyclists (self included) who don’t take out their bikes once temperatures hit freezing. Meanwhile, the number of tickets that cops have given out to jaywalkers has almost quadrupled. That’s right: Last year they only gave out 514 tickets to jaywalkers. This year the total was 1,930 tickets.
Not that endangering your safety and jamming up traffic is that cool, but seriously, come on. Jaywalking is one of the invisible things that keeps the city running. Step off, NYPD.