Am thinking it might be useful to know which US cities tourists might visit have a reputation for enforcing jaywalking laws. Many don't seem to, and if I'm in a new city I tend to take my cue from the locals and how they handle it.

Have never directly experienced getting ticketed for jaywalking, but my limited reading in travel books and at travel web sites suggests two that do are Los Angeles and Milwaukee.

Seattle does

I f they enforced jaywalking laws in NYC we would all be in jail permanently.

You can easily tell tourists - since they're the only ones standing on the curb waiting for the light to change. Locals always stand out in the street as far as safe - and start walking as soon as the last car has passed.

As suze says, if you see someone standing on a corner at 2AM waiting for the light to change, you are in Seattle and that person is a local.

Los Angeles enforces it as far as crossing against a "don't walk" signal on a street light (even if there are no cars around).

DS's friend got a $140 ticket for jaywalking in LA.

Well, now not sure if $40 or $140, upon thinking about it.....

Probably closer to $120. There's been some recent effort to target areas like Hollywood and Downtown where there are a lot of pedestrians (Yes we actually have such areas). I guess they need to balance the budget somehow.

I stick out like a sore thumb in the midwest. I've jaywalked in most of the swing states and haven't gotten a ticket yet. It takes *FOREVER* for the lights to change and when the time allotted for crossing the street is nil.

Most US cities are not pedestrian friendly.

Bobmrg~ That is so true (and made me laugh!).

More than the sneakers or fanny packs, you can tell who's a tourist in Seattle because they are walking against the lights!

With the amount of traffic, speed of traffic, and width of some of the main roads, it's really a good idea to observe all pedestrian signals here in L.A. all the time.

That's a new approach to travel planning, and I thought I've seen them all: travel to places where laws are not enforced

Yes, Seattle! My parents were visiting us when we lived there, and my Dad got a ticket for jaywalking near the Bon.

My advice would be to forget whether local police enforce the jaywalking law or not. There are no exemptions from the laws of physics.

Over the years, I have worked dozens, maybe hundreds, of traffic collisions involving vehicles vs. pedestrians. In my experience, the pedestrian always loses.

If you think a jaywalking citation will spoil your vacation, consider what a ton or more of steel bearing down on you will do.

Folks, I'm not making plans to either dash recklessly into oncoming traffic or choose which cities to visit based on whether any cities do or don't ticket for this offense.

But cops in some cities (like Seattle, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, and Portland[OR] it seems) apparently aggressively ticket pedestrians if they attempt to cross in a crosswalk during a "don't walk" signal even if no cars are coming for miles around. Am thinking it would be useful to know which cities do this and plan accordingly. Several cities I've visited in the US and abroad don't seem to ticket anyone for jaywalking under any circumstances.

Austin & Vegas

Jaywalking laws are periodically enforced in downtown Honolulu, by policement in uniform and in plain clothes.

As far as Waikiki, where most of the tourists are, I don't know. I know that you have to be really careful driving around Waikiki because of all the jaywalking.