







Jaywalking tickets are one of those dumb, embarrassing things about Los Angeles that non-Angelenos love to laugh at us about, and oh man they are so right on this one. Why does the LAPD put so much effort into catching supposed jaywalkers? And we do mean supposed: "you don't need to be crossing against a red light to receive a citation — simply stepping off the curb while the countdown clock ticks could result in a ticket," according to the Downtown News, which reports that the LAPD is specifically cracking down in the Historic Core and the Financial District for the holiday season. And so just stepping off the curb during the countdown--while it is still technically legal to be in the crosswalk--can earn you a ticket ranging from $190 to $250. Obviously walkers should always cross as safely as possible, but an LAPD lieutenant says "We're heavily enforcing pedestrian violations because they're impeding traffic and causing too many accidents and deaths." Meaning the LAPD blames pedestrians for creating both car traffic and car accidents, and will charge people $200 a pop to try to make them stop creating those things. Somehow the 31,326 jaywalking citations issued in the Central Bureau this year didn't prevent four pedestrian deaths and 129 vehicle-pedestrian accidents in Downtown.

· Police Crackdown on Jaywalking Means Tickets of Up to $250 [Downtown News]