Canton, OH Public Conduct: Jaywalking (2026)

Canton Codified Ordinances Section 371.03 sets the city's mid-block crossing rule. Subsection (a) requires a pedestrian crossing outside a marked crosswalk, or outside an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection, to yield the right of way to all vehicles on the roadway. Subsection (b) applies the same yield duty where a pedestrian tunnel or overhead crossing has been provided. Subsection (c) goes further between adjacent signalized intersections: pedestrians may not cross anywhere except in a marked crosswalk, the closest thing Canton's code has to a flat jaywalking ban.

Subsection (d) bars diagonal crossing of an intersection unless official traffic control devices authorize it, and even then pedestrians must follow the devices' specific crossing pattern. Subsection (e) clarifies that none of this relieves a driver of the duty to exercise due care to avoid hitting a pedestrian, so a jaywalker is not automatically at fault in a collision. The Canton Police Department enforces the section citywide. A related provision, Section 371.05, separately governs walking along a highway where no sidewalk exists and cross-references this section's right-of-way rule. Canton Codified Ordinances Section 371.03 traces to Ohio R.C. 4511.48, enacted locally as a city ordinance rather than left to state enforcement alone.