Cathedral City, CA Public Conduct: Jaywalking (2026)

Chapter 12.68 (Pedestrians) of the Cathedral City Municipal Code is short, and its crossing rule is aimed at business districts. Section 12.68.020, Crosswalks, use required when, says no pedestrian shall cross a roadway other than by a crosswalk in any business district. Section 12.04.080 defines a pedestrian as any person afoot. Section 12.68.010 supplies the supporting structure: the city traffic engineer, an office filled by the city manager or the manager's appointee under § 12.08.010, is authorized to establish and maintain crosswalks and designate them with appropriate devices or painted signs on the roadway surface. The engineer can also place signs at or adjacent to an intersection in respect to any crosswalk directing that pedestrians shall not cross except in the crosswalk so indicated. Section 12.16.110 separately authorizes safety zones for the protection of pedestrians.

Two cautions apply. First, § 12.16.040 provides that no provision of the Vehicle Code or Title 12 for which signs are required shall be enforced unless appropriate, legible signs are in place, and the signs authorized in § 12.68.010(B) are the kind that provision addresses. Second, the text of § 12.68.020 itself is confined to business districts, and Chapter 12.68 prints no other mid-block crossing prohibition. Two related pedestrian rules sit elsewhere in Title 12: § 12.64.080 bars pedestrians from walking across or along a street established as a freeway except in space set aside for them, where signs give notice, and § 12.12.050 bars occupying a public way in a way that obstructs free passage. Officers of the Cathedral City police department enforce Title 12 under § 12.12.010.