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> "jay walking" comes from an old derogatory term, "jay"

Really? I always wondered where the term came from, the best explanation I could think of is that the original offense was walking most of the way across the street and then doubling back (so walking in a 'j' shape) which would confuse traffic and lead to more collisions.



Really.

To make it better the term really came into its own because the automobile industry ran various PR campaigns using it in order to combat the many campaign groups who were against bringing large numbers of vehicles to the city.

Pretty standard smear campaign.


The TV Show Adam Ruins Everythign has a cute little bit on the origins of jaywalking[1].

At work without headphones so can't verify if this clip covers the origin of the term, but the whole episode does.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AFn7MiJz_s




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