Middletown, OH Public Conduct: Jaywalking (2026)

03, Right-of-Way Yielded by Pedestrian; Crossing Roadways, sets four rules for anyone on foot in Middletown. Crossing at a point that is not within a marked crosswalk, and not within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection, means the pedestrian must yield the right-of-way to every vehicle on the roadway, not the other way around. The same yielding duty applies to anyone crossing where the city has built a pedestrian tunnel or an overhead pedestrian crossing; a person who skips the tunnel or bridge and crosses at street level must still give way to traffic.

Between two adjacent intersections where traffic-control signals are operating, the code goes further and forbids crossing anywhere except in a marked crosswalk, closing off the informal mid-block crossing that "jaywalking" usually describes. Diagonal crossing through an intersection is likewise prohibited unless official traffic-control devices specifically authorize it, and where a diagonal movement is authorized, a pedestrian must follow whatever signal pattern governs that movement rather than crossing freehand. None of this relieves a driver of the separate duty to exercise due care and avoid hitting a pedestrian on the roadway, so the ordinance splits fault rather than eliminating driver responsibility. C. 48, and its penalty structure escalates with a driver's or pedestrian's recent traffic history rather than staying flat.