California’s new Freedom to Walk Act does not exactly decriminalize jaywalking. It leaves plenty of room for police discretion to ticket unsafe walking, and it doesn’t challenge cars’ domination of city streets. Yet the new law is still a remarkable acknowledgment that we need a future in which walking is accommodated, not deterred, and convenient, not constrained.
Like the removal of an old monument or the renaming of a building, the law signals new possibilities. It follows similar initiatives elsewhere, notably in Virginia, where jaywalking ceased to be a primary offense in 2021.
Walking in America is dangerous, and the risks have been growing. In 2021 more than 7,000 pedestrians were killed on the nation’s streets and roads. In 2007 pedestrians accounted for 11% of all traffic deaths; in 2021 their share was 17%. The risks fall disproportionately on low-income people and people of color.
