Abington, PA Public Conduct: Jaywalking (2026)

Article X of the Vehicles and Traffic chapter, added in 2011 by Ordinance No. 2011, regulates pedestrian conduct at street crossings township-wide. Section 156-73 sets five specific rules: pedestrians must obey traffic and pedestrian control signals; a pedestrian may not suddenly leave the curb or another place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle close enough to be a hazard; a pedestrian crossing anywhere other than a marked crosswalk at an intersection, or any other marked crosswalk, must yield the right-of-way to vehicles already in the roadway; where adjacent intersections both have crosswalks and working traffic control devices, a pedestrian may not cross anywhere except at a marked crosswalk; and no pedestrian may cross an intersection diagonally unless a police officer or other person authorized to direct traffic allows it.

These rules apply to every roadway in the Township, not just Abington's commercial corridors, and they place the burden of yielding on the pedestrian whenever a marked crosswalk is available but unused. Enforcement is direct and summary: § 156-74 authorizes any Abington Township Police Department officer who personally observes a pedestrian violate § 156-73 to issue that pedestrian a ticket on the spot, rather than routing the matter through a separate citation process. The fine is fixed at $20, and the ticketed pedestrian has five days from issuance to pay before further enforcement follows.

Because the article was adopted specifically to regulate pedestrians rather than drivers, it operates alongside, not instead of, the Vehicle Code's crosswalk and signal rules that bind motorists.