jay-walking

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jasonlulu_2000

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China
Recently we held a class meeting to discuss the problem of pedestrians crossing the street while the traffic light is red.As we can see, some pedestrians don’t obey traffic rules and jay-walk frequently. This blocks traffic, seriously affects accidents to happen,endangering the safety of pedestrians and drivers alike. In short, jay-walking produces negative effects and does not help to develop good social behavior.

Are the underlined words in red natural to use in real-life situations?

Can you recommend an alternative or a more common way to express the behavior of pedestrains' crossing the street ignoring the red light? Both words and phrases are welcome.

Thanks!

Jason
 
Thanks.

So "to jump the traffic light" is used to describe a car while "to jaywalk" is used to describe a pedestrian.

Am I right?

Jason
 
We don't "jump" lights in AmE. One would "run" a red light.
 
We do jump red lights in BrE. We don't use "jaywalk". We don't have a word for it in BrE because crossing the road in any place you choose is not illegal. It might be stupid not to use the official pedestrian crossing but, in the UK, there is nothing to stop you crossing the road anywhere you like.
 
emsr2d2 said:
We do jump red lights in BrE. We don't use "jaywalk". We don't have a word for it in BrE because crossing the road in any place you choose is not illegal. It might be stupid not to use the official pedestrian crossing but, in the UK, there is nothing to stop you crossing the road anywhere you like.
Click to expand...
According to Wikipedia: "The United Kingdom does not formally describe priority regulations for drivers and pedestrians at road junctions or other locations, except with respect to marked Zebra, Pelican, and Puffin crossings, where motorists are required to give way to pedestrians under defined conditions.[SUP]"

Please explain Zebra, Pelican, and Puffin crossings.

Cheers,
A4[/SUP]
 
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