Green for go, red for stop: we all know the drill. Not only that but we know to look both ways before crossing the street, and to only cross at designated pedestrian crossing areas. Jaywalking is both bad and stupid; that’s how people get killed, everyone knows that! But just whom do I mean by "we"? I certainly don’t mean the Chinese, for whom any point on any given road (with the possible exception of major highways) is a pedestrian crosswalk and any time is a good time to cross, regardless of relevant traffic signals.

In most places around the globe jaywalking - i.e. crossing the street anywhere other than at a designated crossing area or crossing against the traffic light - is actually illegal: North America, Singapore, Australia, Taiwan etc. Fines in these places range from US$50 to US$750. (US$750!!)

But jaywalking isn’t illegal everywhere, and it isn’t even illegal most places. Even in countries where it’s widely illegal in large cities it tends not to be so in small towns, nor is it illegal in the India, the most populous nation in the world, or in the UK. In fact, one hapless British man was actually arrested for jaywalking in Atlanta, USA, on January 4, 2007 - much to his surprise, as he had no idea such a thing could be illegal (1). The incident prompted BBC news to publish an article informing its British readers about jaywalking laws in other countries the next week (2). As the comments on that article indicate, in places where jaywalking is illegal police are not shy about enforcing the law.

What’s different about China is that while jaywalking is illegal in major cities, no one, but no one, not the police and not the citizens, pays the law the slightest bit of attention. What’s even more remarkable is that even while they patently ignore pedestrian traffic laws, Chinese people do have a system to the way they cross the road. There is a method to the madness. What happens is this: at popular crossing points people gather until some difficult to define critical mass is reached. The first couple of people begin to edge their way off of the curb and the next thing you know the whole mass of people is crossing the street, regardless of oncoming traffic or signals or any other possible impediment. And then something remarkable happens: the cars stop and wait. Oh, they may lean on the horn and the more impatient drivers may edge forward in an attempt to part the crowd, but for the most part, they wait. In this apparent chaos, foreigners in China simply have to relearn how to cross the street.

But as with so much else in China, this street crossing "method" may soon change, at least it will if the central government has anything to say about it. The Chinese government sees a number of reasons to attempt to change people’s behavior, from the increasing number of cars and the concomitant increasing danger, to the coming of the Olympics in 2008 and World Expo in 2010. They have formed a number of different initiatives in different cities in an effort to combat jaywalking. In Beijing hundreds of officials have been hired to patrol street corners during peak hours and prevent people from crossing against the light. In places like Nanjing and Zhengzhou jaywalking fines can actually be deducted directly from one’s paycheck or cut into the bonus money for one’s entire unit (3).

The anti-jaywalking campaign is only a tiny part of the central government’s much larger push to improve what it sees as its citizen’s strikingly poor manners (see "The Spitting Culture" and "Wherever You Need to Go"). It remains to be seen, of course, whether or not any of these measures will have an effect on people’s behavior.

1)   http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070110/ap_on_re_us/jaywalking_historian
2)   http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6251431.stm
3)   http://www.bjreview.com.cn/forum/txt/2006-12/18/content_51250.htm

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