Like California, Anchorage’s Assembly has this month relaxed jaywalking and bicycling laws in an effort to create more equity since, according to the Assembly, more people of color are arrested for violating pedestrian and cyclist rules of the road.
But in the City of Los Angeles, similar measures in the name of equity have led to an increase in pedestrian fatalities.
In 2023, according to the Los Angeles Police Department, while the city has seen a reduction from the 20-year high in pedestrian fatalities that was set in 2022, fully 75% of the fatalities this year involved jaywalkers.
Deputy District Attorney John McKinney, a district attorney candidate, is calling the deadly results “predictable outcomes,” Fox News reports.
“The new law, which legalized jaywalking, was enacted in January of 2023 and has already led to 19 fatalities due to unsafe crossings” out of the 26 pedestrian fatalities in Los Angeles through Aug. 7, McKinney said, according to Fox reporting.
McKinney called the new state jaywalking law “equity run amok.”
This, in a state where the pedestrian fatality rate is already 25% above the national average.
Jaywalking became legal all over California after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law in January that allows people to jaywalk or cross outside of an intersection – without being ticketed – as long as it’s safe. The Freedom To Walk Act changed the law so people can only be ticketed for jaywalking if there’s an immediate danger of a crash.
Beginning in October, Anchorage pedestrians will not face fines for jaywalking, after the Assembly recently passed new laws in the name of equity that allow walkers to cross streets wherever and whenever the walker thinks it’s safe to do so. Typically, police have not ticketed people for jaywalking in Anchorage, but the new law will mean that if they do cite someone for unsafe crossing, they’ll probably end up in court.
