Asheville, NC Public Conduct: Jaywalking (2026)

Chapter 19, Article VI of the Asheville City Code sets out the pedestrian right-of-way scheme, and Sec. 19-231, Crossings at other than crosswalks, is the mid-block jaywalking rule: a pedestrian who crosses at any point other than within a marked crosswalk, or an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection, must yield to all vehicles on the roadway. The same yield duty attaches where the city has built a pedestrian tunnel or overhead crossing instead of an at-grade crosswalk, so using the street rather than the structure does not relieve the pedestrian of the duty to yield. The section traces to Code 1965 Sec. 28-140 and was carried forward by Ord. No. 4910, Sec. 2, adopted November 9, 2021.

The mid-block rule sits alongside two related duties in the same article. Sec. 19-229 requires pedestrians to use a marked crosswalk between adjacent signalized intersections, and Sec. 19-230 requires pedestrians to keep to the right half of any crosswalk they do use. Drivers are not off the hook either: Sec. 19-233 obligates every driver to exercise due care to avoid hitting a pedestrian on any roadway, sound a horn when necessary, and take extra precaution around children or an incapacitated person, regardless of who technically has the right-of-way.

Enforcement runs through the Asheville Police Department. Sec. 19-231(c) makes a violation an infraction punishable under North Carolina General Statute Sec. 14-4, the state's general penalty statute for city ordinance violations, rather than a criminal misdemeanor. Because yielding, not location, is the operative legal test, a pedestrian struck while crossing mid-block can be found to have violated the duty to yield even though jaywalking itself carries no separate ban.