California Crosswalk Law When to Go, When to Stop

California Crosswalk Law – When to Go, When to Stop –blog submitted by staging-vadusuxe.kinsta.cloud, helping drivers contest and dismiss their traffic tickets.

The law requires a driver to “yield” to pedestrians within marked (or unmarked) crosswalks.

The law is not meant to give pedestrians a free pass to cross a street ‘willy nilly’ though. In fact the California Vehicle Code under Section 21950 (subsection b) prohibits a pedestrian from stepping out in front of your car suddenly and also from delaying traffic while passing through a crosswalk.

Since the California law does not state outright that one must wait till a pedestrian has fully exited from a crosswalk, has reached the halfway point, etc, a lot is left open for debate. The vague law unfortunately provides a segue for unjust citations, because too much discretion is left for officers to decide when it is ok for a driver to go and when a driver is required to remain stopped for a pedestrian.

This very issue was addressed by the California Court of Appeal many years ago, and a good rule of thumb to follow can be taken from it: If interference between the driver and the pedestrian is not reasonably expected, the driver is not required to wait for the pedestrian.

While you may not need to wait until a pedestrian has FULLY passed through a crosswalk before entering, in order to ensure you have sufficiently yielded you should enter the crosswalk ONLY once there is a reasonable distance in between your car and the pedestrian and do so at a reasonably safe speed. –  blog submitted by staging-vadusuxe.kinsta.cloud, helping drivers contest and dismiss their traffic tickets. 

If you get cited for a red light photo ticket, contact us at www.staging-vadusuxe.kinsta.cloud or call us at (800) 850-8038.

This blog was written to provide information related to traffic tickets in California, is based on opinion only, is not legal advice, and is for informational purposes only.