West Des Moines, IA Public Conduct: Jaywalking (2026)

Section 6-8-4 of the West Des Moines City Code puts the burden on the pedestrian who crosses outside a marked crosswalk or an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection: that pedestrian must yield the right of way to every vehicle on the roadway, rather than the driver yielding to the pedestrian as required elsewhere in chapter 8. The same yield rule applies to a pedestrian who crosses at a point where the city has built a pedestrian tunnel or overhead crossing instead of a street-level crosswalk.

Where a traffic-control signal operates at a location that is not an intersection, such as a mid-block signal, pedestrians may not cross at any point except within a marked crosswalk at all. Section 6-8-5 still requires every driver to exercise due care to avoid hitting any pedestrian on the roadway regardless of where that pedestrian is crossing, and to sound the horn when necessary, so the yield obligation on jaywalkers does not remove a driver's separate duty of care. No dedicated fine is listed for section 6-8-4 itself, so a violation falls under the City Code's general penalty provision in section 1-4-2.