Front Royal moves toward local code against jaywalking

As part of its ongoing effort to address pedestrian-vehicular traffic safety issues, on Monday, August 13, the Front Royal Town Council passed the first reading of an ordinance change making jaywalking illegal by town code. Following second reading approval anticipated in two weeks, the code change making jaywalking a Class 4 Misdemeanor by local code will go into effect.

The change is largely cosmetic – jaywalking is already illegal by state code – but one substantive change is that when charged by local ordinance, most if not all of the fine revenue upon conviction goes to the municipality, rather than the state. A Class 4 Misdemeanor is punishable by up to a $250 fine.

But as Front Royal Police Chief Kahle Magalis explains in the following video interview, revenue is a minor consideration in the proposed code change – educating and deterring the public from dangerous decisions as pedestrians are the primary goals of the local jaywalking ordinance.

The town suffered three pedestrian fatalities within a one-year period over the past two years, as well as several non-fatal vehicle striking pedestrians or bicyclists accidents over the past year.

Preventing those who will always be on the losing side a pedestrian-vehicular collision from putting themselves in harms way in the first place will be the town police’s goal in the enforcement of the new code when it goes into effect.