Gulfport, MS Public Conduct: Jaywalking (2026)

Section 6-236, 'Prohibited crossing,' layers a stricter rule on top of Gulfport's general pedestrian right-of-way scheme in sections 6-231 through 6-235. Under subsection (a), wherever traffic-control signals are in operation between adjacent intersections, a pedestrian may not cross the roadway anywhere except in a marked crosswalk, closing the mid-block gap that section 6-235 otherwise leaves open by only requiring pedestrians outside a crosswalk to yield the right-of-way. Subsection (b) goes further for downtown: inside the central business district, a pedestrian may not cross a roadway other than in a crosswalk at all, regardless of whether traffic signals are operating at that particular block.

Subsection (c) lets the mayor and city council extend this crosswalk-only requirement to any other street in Gulfport simply 'by order or resolution,' without a separate ordinance amendment, meaning the list of streets where jaywalking is flatly prohibited can grow without changing the text of section 6-236 itself. The section traces to Code of 1963 section 25-162 and long predates the more forgiving 'yield' standard that still governs residential streets outside downtown. Because the traffic chapter makes it 'a misdemeanor for any person to do any act forbidden by this chapter' under section 6-37, a pedestrian cited under section 6-236 for crossing mid-block downtown, or outside a crosswalk on a signal-controlled block, is prosecuted the same way any other traffic infraction is, in municipal court, and a violation with no separately stated fine defaults to the general penalty of section 1-9.