Gardena, CA Public Conduct: Jaywalking (2026)

Chapter 10.20, Pedestrians, gives the city's traffic authority power under § 10.20.010 to establish and mark crosswalks wherever there is a particular hazard to pedestrians or as the city council otherwise directs by resolution. Once those crosswalks exist, § 10.20.020 flatly bars crossing 'other than by a crosswalk or at an intersection,' and § 10.20.030 adds that where no marked crosswalk controls, a pedestrian must cross 'at right angles to the curb or by the shortest route to the opposite curb.' Together the two sections outlaw diagonal, mid-block, and off-crosswalk crossings anywhere in the city, from the auto-dealer corridors along Western and Vermont Avenues to residential side streets.

Section 10.20.040 separately bars standing in a roadway outside a safety zone or crosswalk if it interferes with traffic, exempting on-duty public officers, employees, and utility workers. Because these sections regulate use of the state Vehicle Code's traffic provisions, § 1.16.010(G) and (H) set the penalty scheme: all traffic-code violations, including pedestrian violations, are infractions rather than misdemeanors, and a pedestrian violation specifically carries a fine not exceeding fifty dollars under § 1.16.010(H), citing Vehicle Code § 42001. The Gardena Police Department, as the city's own law enforcement agency, issues these citations; there is no administrative-citation track for pedestrian crossing violations under Chapter 1.20, only the criminal infraction process.

The rule applies citywide wherever a marked crosswalk or intersection exists nearby, and it does not require a driver to be present or a collision to occur, since the offense is completed at the moment the pedestrian steps off a curb outside the permitted crossing points.