With a body count of 14 deaths of pedestrians in the roadways of Anchorage this year alone, the Anchorage Assembly is being asked by Mayor Suzanne LaFrance and Assemblyman Randy Sulte to reverse its walk-anywhere approach and reinstate an ordinance pertaining to jaywalking, which has become a nightmare for drivers and deadly for those who wander into the roadways.
In August of 2023, the Anchorage Assembly passed an ordinance prompted by Assembly Daniel Volland, which made jaywalking a legal option in most places.
As the law stands now, it is up to the pedestrian to decide when and where it is safe to cross a street. Drivers say that people in Anchorage now wander in front of their cars all over the city, and they report many close calls on social media. 14 pedestrian deaths (and another in a parking lot) and even more injuries in 2024 — surpasses the entire state record for one year. That prompted LaFrance and Sulte to on Tuesday file the proposed reinstatement of fines for those crossing outside of marked crosswalks.
“The prohibition of pedestrians crossing the roadway outside of a marked or unmarked crosswalk sets a community and legal expectation that everyone, drivers and pedestrians alike, must take personal responsibility for their safety on the roads,” the ordinance says.
The 2023 ordinance was passed without consulting Anchorage police, who disagreed with the approach that “anything goes” in roadways would result in a better quality of life in Anchorage. In reality, police rarely enforced a jaywalking ticket-able offense, but the law encouraged people to use crosswalks.
Yet the woke majority of the Assembly decided that Anchorage jaywalking laws were racist and must go. Even this new ordinance echoes that belief system, saying “Municipality acknowledges that enforcement of pedestrian behavior laws can result in a disproportionate impact on people of color and unhoused individuals.” By impact, they apparently mean getting run over when people are stumbling into traffic.
The new ordinance says that a “preliminary review” suggests 11 of the pedestrian deaths occurred on a major roadway and outside of a marked or unmarked crosswalk, with the other three occurring within an unmarked crosswalk.
“Pedestrian safety is connected to individual and societal expectations and behaviors, deterrents, infrastructure improvements, and public education,” the new ordinance says. “Pedestrian safety is a complex issue, and with many different tactics to increase safety being simultaneously implemented through Vision Zero, using data to determine the efficacy of a single tactic can be difficult.”
The proposed ordinance requires police to track encounters and citations related to pedestrian contacts, injuries, and deaths, and any other relevant data to help inform the Assembly about the efficacy of jaywalking laws and to report back to the Assembly in 2026.
The ordinance was introduced Tuesday and will go through the public comment process before being voted on at a later time, possibly after a few more “Assembly equity deaths” occur on the streets of Anchorage.
The Assembly in September also considered adding back lighting to streets to improve visibility, without acknowledging that most of the pedestrian deaths are occurring during daylight hours, many of them in summer. The Assembly also considered but ultimately decided against a special driving law for a section of downtown Anchorage that prohibited a right turn on a red light.
LMAO ! Like they can enforce it AND the jaywalkers don’t even pay the fines/debt they already had acquired over the years. What makes the assembly think that will work? . Is their gonna be a cop sitting waiting – nope they have other more important calls Tax paying working class jaywalkers have something to lose – the ones I see are the drunks stumbling across
Bev you are missing the point. We had jaywalking laws in place for a long time before the assembly in their benighted benevolence decided that they were “racist” (not sure how that works anyway as they apply to all equally). When that happened the responsibility to avoid negative outcomes was shifted entirely to drivers. When during their patrol police officers encountered a person jaywalking, the violation of the law gave them the authority to stop and assess the individual and intervene as appropriate. With our current law police has to sit idly by and watch some person stumble across the road way endangering themselves and others.
This is another example of feel good nanny legislation from the Anchorage assembly. Does anyone really believe that homeless inebriated jaywalkers really care about receiving a jaywalking ticket? If a person receives a jaywalking ticket and ignores the penalty then what? The answer is nothing! The fourteen pedestrian deaths are because they walked in front of motor vehicles when and where they should not. The ones I feel sorry for are the hapless drivers who have no recourse when one of these fools steps in front of a moving vehicle,
Here we go let’s have some more lip service from our illustrious assembly members.
They couldn’t manage an ice cream or Kool-Aid stand let alone in the city why people voted for these nuts is beyond me. Need your capacity law that need your capacity law resending the law that they just passed.
Very good leadership we have here they should be so proud.
Meg Zaletel is losing too many clients to let this tragedy take place so they must take immediate action to save her other job of using tax dollars to fund her “Golden Goose”.
Toxicology reports on the victims will be a definite factor whether the reinstatement of fines for jaywalking will see any decline in the death toll.
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Well, it appears that the disproportionate impact on people of color and unhoused individuals has been with car and truck bumpers. Wonder if the woke assembly will issue an apology to the families of the victims (both those who were hit and those driving and living with the guilt). Everyone could see this car wreck coming a mile away when it was passed, yet the Assembly threw up their collective middle finger at the adults in the room and said, “Eff you, we’re smarter than you, we’re woker than you, we’ll do what we want.” And they did. And here we are. Nice work, gang.
This will stop most deaths from JWalking and Biden is sharp as a tack.
The answer to homeless cost is put life insurance on all inebriates. As they fall of the insurance will recoup some costs associated with their behavior.
I think this is a good idea. The other day I was at the grocery store and a guy came out in a mobility scooter and headed it directly across the busy 4 lane road without even looking. It was almost like he wanted to commit suicide, with the VA. Hospital right there. Maybe he was, anyway oncoming traffic was such that they couldn’t brake in time and just had to swerve for all they were worth to avoid the collision, which thankfully they did. In this case, I don’t think jaywalking laws would have helped him because he didn’t have the ability or will to follow them, and that may be the case in anchorage, but all we can do is try.
How many pedestrians would still be alive if Daniel Volland would have left this alone?
Just like Anthony Fauci….He likes to experiment with real people.
Almost ran over a pedestrian yesterday. The complete disregard of vehicular traffic by this individual was astounding. Not sure that the legality of jaywalking really is an issue. Me I am scared to death of walking around vehicles especially this time of year in parking lots much less on roadways.
They are walking it back because the jaywalkers that have been killed are prob Liberal Left-wing voting Democrats!
Lol They are letting their own voters un-alive themselves!
Homeless Solution.
After the Great Depression – this country dealt with a large homeless problem.
Hoover Towns, Hobo’s, Bum’s etc.
Solution?
Las were placed on the books to punish negative behavior.
Loitering.
Encampments on public land – illegal.
Public intoxication.
Vagrancy.
Shoplifting.
Littering.
Panhandling.
And yes – Jaywalking.
Punish negative behavior – it stops.
Reward negative behavior – non-enforcement of laws, free housing, needle exchange, etc – it flourishes and grows.
Exactly right.
Maybe we could pass out,,,er hand out reflective vests with the methadone.
That could work actually. Down here in my town, all the panhandlers in the intersections wear one.
Isn’t it racist to claim the jaywalking law is racist? It assumes that one’s respect for the law is dependent on his/her race. It absolutely is racist to assume people of a certain race have a lower propensity to obey our laws.
If we continue their woke logic, why don’t they repeal all the laws where the conviction rate is racially disproportionate?
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