Pontiac, MI Public Conduct: Jaywalking (2026)

Pontiac regulates pedestrian roadway use at City Code §§ 114-255 through 114-258, inside Chapter 114's traffic article. Section 114-255 is the core rule: where a sidewalk is provided, a pedestrian may not walk on the main traveled portion of the highway at all; where no sidewalk exists, pedestrians must, when practicable, walk facing oncoming traffic on the left side of the road instead of with their backs to it. Section 114-256 addresses crossing specifically: pedestrians are subject to traffic control signals at every intersection, but at other locations they retain the privileges and bear the restrictions the section states, meaning Pontiac does not flatly criminalize crossing mid-block the way some cities do; instead it places reciprocal duties on both sides.

Subsection (b) bars a driver from passing another vehicle stopped at a marked or unmarked intersection crosswalk to let a pedestrian cross, and subsection (c) requires every driver to exercise due care to avoid hitting any pedestrian on the roadway, sound a horn when necessary, and take extra precaution around children or confused or incapacitated people. Section 114-257 tells pedestrians to keep to the right half of a crosswalk whenever practicable, and § 114-258 separately bans standing in a roadway to solicit a ride from a passing driver.

Because Pontiac's code frames pedestrian crossing as a set of mutual yield-and-care obligations rather than a blanket ban on crossing outside a marked crosswalk, enforcement here centers on the roadway-walking rule in § 114-255 and the driver's-due-care rule in § 114-256(c) rather than a standalone jaywalking citation.