Glendale, CA Public Conduct: Jaywalking (2026)

010 gives the traffic and transportation administrator authority to mark crosswalks either where an engineering study finds an exceptional hazard to pedestrians, or at locations the city council designates by resolution between intersections. 020 imposes a flat rule for business districts: pedestrians may not cross a roadway anywhere except in a crosswalk, whether painted or simply the unmarked extension of a sidewalk across an intersection. This is Glendale's operative jaywalking rule, and it applies specifically within the boundaries of a business district rather than citywide.

030 addresses a related but distinct behavior, standing in the roadway: no one may stand in a street outside a marked safety zone or crosswalk if doing so interferes with the lawful movement of traffic, though the code carves out an exception for a public officer, city employee, or public utility employee who is necessarily in the street in the line of duty, such as an officer directing traffic or a utility worker at a manhole. Both sections trace to the city's 1960s-era 'Prior Code' numbering, sections 27-46 through 27-48, carried forward into the current Municipal Code Title 10 chapter on pedestrians.

Together they give Glendale police a basis to cite a pedestrian who darts across mid-block in a commercial corridor, and a separate basis to move along someone standing in a live traffic lane outside a designated crossing or safety zone.