# 10 – I cannot move forward: there are hordes of people coming at me
# 9 – Where do I cross ? the crossing between avenues is so far away, I cannot even see it!
# 8 – Sidewalks are dangerous: they look like my neighbor’s lawn: too many useless things make you trip and fall
# 7 – I am not an Olympian: pushing a wheelchair through ped ramp trenches requires too much upper body strength!
# 6 – Second hand smoking: patrons outside bars and sidewalk cafe block the way
# 5 – I can’t afford walking on Sidewalks: I ruin my heels every time I walk on ConEd grids
# 4 – I am not a rat: why should I walk next to mounds of garbage?
# 3 – I do not want to die: traffic agents wave turning drivers into my path
# 2 – I can’t swim: with rain or snow, I can’t get over the rivers at the crossing
# 1 – I want to live: turning drivers are out there to get me!
More reasons to jaywalk (to add to the above):
11. If I’m in the middle of the street – especially on a crosstown one, why should I go all the way to the corner to cross, if I’m not stopping car traffic? (Oops, similar to reason #9)
12. You mean any cop is going to ticket me for crossing if traffic is stalled bumper to bumper?
13. Cars use 80% of the streets – an unfair advantage, considering that more than 80% of vehicles have only one occupant.
14. NYC is not Seattle, thank god, where I once got a jaywalking ticket.
15. You feel like a real New Yorker as you jaywalk when certain out of towners and some Europeans are waiting for the light to change, particularly when there are no cars in sight!
16. (or compensation for #11, above) Isn’t jaywalking named for J. (Johnnie) Walker – that famous Scotsman on the whiskey bottle? Or is it James. J. Walker, flamboyant NY Mayor of the 1920’s – and either one is a good reason for Jaywalking.
17. Don’t our law enforcement officers have enough to watch out for with careless drivers running rampant (including cabbies)?