To cross a street illegally by walking outside of marked crosswalks, crossing against a red light, or walking in lanes reserved for vehicular traffic. Traffic engineers study these crossing patterns to identify locations where pedestrian infrastructure is missing, poorly placed, or where signal timing fails to accommodate foot traffic.
Heard on the job
We need to install a mid-block crossing here because pedestrians consistently jaywalk to reach the transit stop on the opposite side.
Insider tip
Engineers often view frequent jaywalking not as a behavioral failure, but as a design failure indicating a missing desire line.