After moving to New York, I quickly learned the art of safe and efficient jaywalking. This post on URBANPHOTO (via Astoria Bike) captures the positive spirit of jaywalking that I’ve come to hold dear: Rather than just a sign of chaos and impatience, jaywalking also shows how important pedestrians are to our city.

Christopher DeWolf writes:

It’s hard to fault police officers for simply upholding the law, but should jaywalking even be illegal in the first place? Maybe it’s time to rethink the entire notion of jaywalking. Maybe, just maybe, jaywalking is actually good for cities….

It isn’t a coincidence that the cities with the most robust jaywalking culture are those in which walking rules: Montreal, Boston, New York, Philadelphia—to mention just a handful. Jaywalking is the pedestrian’s way of reclaiming the street. Drivers and their footloose counterparts might not get along in these cities, but they’re keenly aware of each others’ presence. “There should be some sort of interaction between cars and pedestrians,” says Reid. Pedestrians already know that cars are around; cars should learn to accept that pedestrians will be around.” Or, as Pfeiffer puts it quite plainly, “If you make pedestrians more visible, drivers will be aware of them.”

He concludes the blog post by calling on us to jaywalk (safely!) as an act of civil disobedience. But here in New York, jaywalking doesn’t even feel like an act of disobedience; it’s just the way most people operate.