James City County, VA Public Conduct: Jaywalking (2026)

Sec. 13-26 of the James City County Code, titled 'Pedestrians on roadways; keeping to left; soliciting rides,' bars pedestrians from using roadways or streets for travel except where sidewalks are absent and reasonably suitable and passable for their use. When a pedestrian must walk on the hard surface or main traveled portion of the roadway because no usable sidewalk exists, the section requires keeping to the extreme left side or edge of the road, or walking on either shoulder if it is wide enough to permit it, so a pedestrian without a sidewalk faces oncoming traffic rather than walking with their back to it.

A second, separate paragraph of the same section bars pedestrians from standing or stopping in any roadway or street to solicit a ride, targeting hitchhiking rather than crossing behavior. The county code does not contain a separate mid-block-crossing or 'jaywalking' offense distinct from this roadway-use rule; James City County instead relies on the general pedestrian-conduct standard in Sec. 13-26 and on Virginia's own crosswalk and right-of-way statutes for enforcement at signalized and marked crossings, which the code notes as a 'similar state law' reference. The section carries no permit or registration requirement; it is a straightforward behavior rule enforced by James City County Police on county roads outside the independent city of Williamsburg.