Dubuque, IA Public Conduct: Jaywalking (2026)

Dubuque City Code section 9-8-321.328, Use Of Crosswalks, is the city's jaywalking rule. Subsection A requires that within two hundred feet (200') of any marked crosswalk in the city of Dubuque, pedestrians must use that marked crosswalk to cross the roadway, rather than crossing mid-block nearby. Subsection B tells pedestrians who are using a crosswalk to move, whenever practicable, on the right half of it, keeping foot traffic flowing the same direction as vehicle lanes. Subsection C addresses the flip side: a pedestrian who crosses at a point more than two hundred feet (200') from a marked crosswalk, or who crosses within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection, does not break the law by crossing there, but must yield the right of way to every vehicle on the roadway while doing so.

That yield duty is the mirror of section 9-8-321.327, which separately requires a driver to yield to a pedestrian who is inside a marked crosswalk or an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection when no traffic signal governs the crossing. Read together, the two sections give marked crosswalks the strongest protection within the 200 foot zone, treat unmarked intersection crossings and any crossing beyond 200 feet as pedestrian-yield situations, and leave the sidewalk-adjacent walking rule in section 9-8-321.326, which requires pedestrians walking along a highway with no sidewalk to keep to the left side of the roadway, to cover the separate case of walking rather than crossing.

The section was last amended by Ordinance 38-16 on August 1, 2016, replacing an earlier version of the crosswalk-use rule adopted with the rest of Title 9 in 2008.