Governor Brown signs bill making it legal to enter a crosswalk while the clock counts down

The days of getting a jaywalking ticket for stepping into the crosswalk during the countdown are officially coming to an end. Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 390 on Monday, making it legal for pedestrians to enter a crosswalk while a countdown signal is flashing. Streetsblog says the new law goes into effect in January.

Previously, state law said that it was illegal to step into a crosswalk if the countdown timer was counting down—even if the person crossing the street had enough time to make it to the other side before the traffic light changed. The standard ticket? $197.

“It doesn’t make sense to have a bogus gotcha law that continues to ticket people [while] at the same time, in LA, we’re trying to get people out of their cars,” Assemblymember Miguel Santiago, one of the bill’s authors, told Curbed last month. “A $200 ticket like this can be devastating for many people.”

It’s still possible to get a ticket crossing the street. The new law does not apply to older crossing signals that don’t have a countdown. If the signal only shows “Walk” or “Don’t walk,” it’s illegal to cross if that red hand is lit up.

• Governor Brown Signs Bill: No More Tickets for Crossing on Countdown [Streetsblog]
• State may finally put an end to totally bogus jaywalking tickets [Curbed LA]