State senator wants to raise jaywalking’s dollar fine
Jaywalkers in the state may soon have more to worry about than their own personal safety. A new bill by state Senate majority leader Harriette Chandler would increase the fines for illegally stepping off the curb, according to The Boston Globe.
Chandler says the current fine — $1 for the first offense, second and third offense, and $2 per offense thereafter, according to the Massachusetts Court System — doesn’t do enough to curb pedestrians’ desire to cross the street wherever they please.
“If you’re only fined a dollar, people will keep doing it over and over again. I couldn’t believe that jaywalking was a dollar fine,’’ Chandler told the State House News Service.
Chandler said the would reduce the risk of pedestrian injury, accidents that go largely unreported according to a 2014 Globe story. In 2006, the Boston Public Health Commission’s “Walk this Way’’ campaign found that the people are injured every day in pedestrian accidents.
Jaywalking’s dollar penalty has been in effect has been around for several decades: A March 1966 Associated Press story reported the introduction of the citation. “Downtown Boston, with its narrow winding streets, has been the principal stamping ground of the jaywalker,’’ the AP reported.
If passed, Chandler’s bill will up the jaywalking fine to $25 for the first offense, $50 for the second, and $75 for subsequent offenses in the calendar year, according to the Globe.
Read the full story here.
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