It's the opposite in LA. We have such a huge volume of traffic that jaywalking actually gets ticketed (often), and I had to re-train my East Coast self to only only ONLY cross when I'm supposed to.

I'll never forget at the DC F2F, heading back to the hotel from the Air & Space Museum. We got to Constitution Ave, and like clockwork, everyone from the Northeast looked both ways and kept walking while everyone from California stayed patiently on the curb waiting for the light to change. I think that was the first time I'd heard that jaywalking tickets were a real thing.

omg - the puppy sleeping on his back is dreaming and twitchy and I need to have him here!!

Jessica, exactly! I have to adapt now for where I am -- back East, cross whenever. Here? Wait.

The parks department here in Brooklyn are trying to train people in Prospect Park to obey the lights at crosswalks because there have been so many bike/pedestrian accidents, but it's a loooooooooooooooooong process.

At the risk of sounding like Bill Maher: New Rule: You don't get to make laws about things till you can say the words for them out loud.

omg - the puppy sleeping on his back is dreaming and twitchy and I need to have him here!!

I'm saying.

Now I can't remember if it was in Boston or New York, but someone recently told me about getting a jaywalking ticket in one of those cities, and I literally didn't believe them.

Heh. When we moved from Manhattan to the midwest when I was young, I think that was the first real Twilight Zone moment for my parents, when my dad got a jaywalking ticket two weeks in.

That and when he asked a coworker where the nearest water fountain was and they directed him four blocks away to city hall.

Now I can't remember if it was in Boston or New York, but someone recently told me about getting a jaywalking ticket in one of those cities, and I literally didn't believe them.

I've gotten jaywalking tickets in Oakland and in Los Angeles (Westwood).

One was obviously a matter of bolstering the city budget (the streets in Oakland were completely bare of traffic when I crossed and it wasn't a busy street at any time), and one was a form of harassment (Westwood - fucking LAPD).

I've been yelled at by a cop for jaywalking in Oakland (with msbelle! before your wedding!) but we told the cop we were from New York and he let us go.

I am guessing the incidence of pedestrian crossing accidents is probably high in LA if that's mostly the place people cross the roads, like you guys are suggesting. I don't know if that means it's more dangerous there, or that's just the only place it can happen, though.

I am reasonably resigned to the risk of getting fucked up that way, but I cannot make peace with standing back away from the curb and hoping that six lanes of traffic will coincidentally clear up all at once.