Boulder, CO Public Conduct: Jaywalking (2026)

Section 7-5-17(a) of the Boulder Revised Code requires a pedestrian crossing outside a crosswalk to travel at right angles to the curb, or by the shortest practical route to the opposite curb, rather than cutting diagonally across a block. Subsection (b) adds a stricter rule near signals: where a traffic control signal operates at an intersection, no pedestrian may cross the roadway within fifty feet of that intersection's crosswalk except inside the crosswalk itself, in conformance with the signal-obedience rule in Section 7-5-15. Subsection (c) carves out two exemptions: pedestrians using a marked crosswalk, or crossing under the diagonal crossing allowance in Subsection 7-5-15(d), are not covered by the mid-block restriction, and neither are pedestrians walking along streets the city has designated shared streets.

The section sits in Chapter 5, covering pedestrians, bicycles, human-powered vehicles, low-power scooters, electric vehicles, and animal transportation, alongside the companion rule in Section 7-5-19 requiring pedestrians to use an available sidewalk on state highways, four-lane streets, and business-zoned streets, and Section 7-5-20 requiring pedestrians without a sidewalk to walk facing oncoming traffic. Boulder Police cite this rule most often near the fifty-foot no-cross buffer at signalized downtown intersections, where the crosswalk-only rule is posted and enforced against pedestrians who cut across mid-block instead of walking to the corner.