Fountain Valley, CA Public Conduct: Jaywalking (2026)

Fountain Valley Municipal Code § 10.60.020 is the city's own jaywalking rule for the City of Fountain Valley, and it is narrow. It says no pedestrian shall cross an arterial highway within four hundred feet of a crosswalk other than by a crosswalk. The distance is fixed at four hundred feet, and the rule speaks only to arterial highways, the wide through streets such as those the code names in its parking chapter, including Euclid Street, Brookhurst Street, Magnolia Street, Edinger Avenue, Warner Avenue and Talbert Avenue. A pedestrian who is more than four hundred feet from the nearest crosswalk falls outside the rule.

The companion section, § 10.60.010, controls where crosswalks exist. The city traffic engineer establishes, designates and maintains crosswalks at intersections and other places by devices, marks or lines on the roadway surface. Other than crosswalks at intersections, no crosswalk can be established in any block less than four hundred feet in length, and any such crosswalk is located as nearly as practicable at mid-block. The traffic engineer can also post signs at or next to an intersection directing that pedestrians shall not cross in an indicated crosswalk. In practice the two sections work together: because mid-block crosswalks appear only in blocks of at least four hundred feet, the four hundred foot radius in § 10.60.020 lines up with the block lengths that can hold one.

Penalties come from the general penalty section rather than from Chapter 10.60. Section 1.16.010 makes any violation of the code a misdemeanor, with a fine of not more than one thousand dollars or up to six months in the county jail, except that the city attorney or other prosecutor can charge it as an infraction. An infraction carries a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars for a first violation, two hundred dollars for a second violation of the same ordinance within one year, and five hundred dollars for each additional violation of the same ordinance within one year. The Fountain Valley Police Department handles street enforcement. This section does not restate California Vehicle Code pedestrian rules, which apply separately.