It’s interesting to look back at the history of jaywalking in this article from the Toronto Star. Seattle’s not much of a jaywalking town, as this article references:
Chicago remains a jaywalking town. When White Sox general manager Kenny Williams was ticketed for jaywalking in Seattle last summer, Williams’ explanation to the officer was that pedestrians jaywalk in Chicago all the time. To which the officer retorted: not in Seattle.
Still, it’s interesting that the street used to be public spaces for pedestrians and, as this article details, over the period of 30 years from 1900 to 1930, streets became the domain of car traffic. Pedestrians are now trying to reclaim the streets that once belonged to them, but we’ll never return to the free jaywalking days of 1900.
