alt Hacker NewsThe word "jaywalking" is often used colloquially to refer to crossing the street anywhere that isn't a controlled crossing; it's not always strictly referring to the law.
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hinkley • yesterday at 7:50 PM
“Jaywalking” is partially a psyop by the burgeoning automobile industry to blame the victims instead of the drivers.
I suppose it didn’t work that well because as a rule a car or bike hitting a pedestrian is still almost always at fault.
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The term itself was made up by the US auto industry in the 1920s in an attempt to shift blame of traffic fatalities towards pedestrians. And it worked. Before that, streets (which are built by the state) belonged to everyone and drivers were almost always held responsible for accidents.
They made up the term jaywalking by combining "walking" with the term "jay" which was a slang term for a country bumpkin or idiot from out of town. They hired actors to spread the slur to refer to those out of towners that don't know how to "properly" behave around streets in a modern city. They even paid Boy Scouts to hand out warning cards and staged mock funerals