Udo reports the case of a pedestrian who crossed the road when the light was red and was given a fixed penalty notice for 5 euros. He was seen by two policemen (and finished up paying a lot more because the deadline had passed).
I’ve lived here all this time and I never knew it was punishable.
How about the UK? You see signs on the road there saying ‘Look right’, so you know where to check there is no traffic before crossing.
The Highway Code contains some provisions which are subject to a penalty. They contain the words must or must not:
bq. Many of the rules in the Code are legal requirements, and if you disobey these rules you are committing a criminal offence. You may be fined, given penalty points on your licence or be disqualified from driving. In the most serious cases you may be sent to prison. Such rules are identified by the use of the words MUST / MUST NOT. In addition the rule includes an abbreviated reference to the legislation which creates the offence.
Not so the rules for crossing against the lights as a pedestrian:
bq. 21: At traffic lights. There may be special signals for pedestrians. You should only start to cross the road when the green figure shows. If you have started to cross the road and the green figure goes out, you should still have time to reach the other side, but do not delay.
Note should, not must.
See the comments to Udo’s entry. Is it a regulatory offence in Austria too? Doesn’t sound like it.
Of course it’s a punishable offense in Austria for a pedestrian to cross the streets when the lights are red.
The Austrian traffic code Straßenverkehrsordnung) has a cover-all clause:
Only 5? Friends of mine got larger ones, and that was 10 years ago. Imagine my shock when I first crossed a red pedestrian light in Paris finding a police officer stationed at the other side. It was very late, certainly after midnight. I looked at him deer-in-the-headlights-like, expecting a reprimand. He said “Bon soir, madame.”
Ingmar: Thanks. It is a regulatory offence (Verwaltungsübertretung: Ordnungswidrigkeit?). I wondered, because one of the commenters on lawblog wrote: ‘in AT ist es absolut usus, bei rot über die straße zu gehen. im schlimmsten fall wird man von der polizei freundlich ermahnt (von seltenen fällen amtlichen sadismus einmal abgesehen). in DE hingegen ist mir aufgefallen, dass das kaum jemand tut und man dabei von umstehenden zivilisten schief angesehen wird (zumindest im norden – in münchen scheints nicht so schlimm zu sein).’
But maybe that’s somewhere like Vienna?
Chris: maybe the sum varies from place to place.
I had to look up the definition of “Ordnungsiwdrigkeit”. According to the “Ordnungswidrigkeitengesetz” it is “eine rechtswidrige und vorwerfbare Handlung, die den Tatbestand eines Gesetzes verwirklicht, das die Ahndung mit einer Geldbuße zulässt”.
This pretty much fits the Austrian term “Verwaltungsübertretung”, only that there can also be (short) prison sentences if the law allows it (rarely) and “es notwendig ist, um den Täter oder die Täterin von weiteren Übertretungen gleicher Art abzuhalten”. The Austrian definition would have to be somewhat broader then: If it’s forbidden by law, and it’s not in the jurisdiction of the courts, it’s a Verwaltungsübertretung.
By the way, even in Vienna I never saw a policeman turn a blind eye, but I never saw anybody being fined either. So, yes, if nobody’s looking, obeying the pedestrian lights becomes somewhat optional.
By the way, I also don’t think 5 EUR is much of a deterrent.
By the way, I think I used “by the way” at least two times too often in the last two comments.
Selbst wenn niemand danach gefragt hat: Hier in Washington kostet es mindestens $10.
Have you ever jaywalked, Clemens?
Incidentally (or by the way), I went out to take that photo this morning. My best chance was stopping in the middle of a crossing. Unfortunately the lights went red before I had finished and so I had to wait to drive on. Hope this has no repercussions!
Na, wie man sonst als Fussgaenger durch die Stadt kommen?
A strange law, and one that I’m glad doesn’t exist in the UK. Even if it did, no-one would take the blindest bit of notice of it.
I remember when I lived in the Canary Islands, I kept seeing all these German tourists waiting patiently by the side of the road for the lights to change – even when there was no traffic. I happily jaywalked, of course, in spite of the lunatic Spanish drivers.