The Anchorage Assembly is not bringing back fines for jaywalking — for now.
The body voted 7 to 4 Tuesday night to indefinitely postpone an ordinance that would’ve reinstated a $40 fine for jaywalking. In 2023, Assembly members voted to eliminate the fine.
South Anchorage Assembly member Randy Sulte proposed reintroducing the fines as a way, he said, to reduce the number of pedestrians hit by cars in the city. He noted that in the year after the Assembly got rid of jaywalking fines, 15 pedestrians were killed by vehicles, a modern record.
“I do hope this AO is a step forward to re-establishing a culture to encourage our citizens, friends, neighbors and children, act and demonstrate the right behaviors that will save lives,” Sulte said.
East Anchorage Assembly member George Martinez proposed postponing the ordinance indefinitely, and said he wanted to get more data on the deaths.
“It’s my understanding that the administration is waiting for a report from APD to be produced regarding data that supports this particular item,” Martinez said. “That data is not available now, there's no foreseeable time when the data would be available.”
Some Assembly members said they doubted that getting rid of the fines led to the high number of deaths. West Anchorage Assembly member Anna Brawley added that before they were eliminated, the fines were rarely enforced, at most once every couple months.
“I think it is a valid question to say, how do we make sure the roads are safer? How do we encourage safer behavior?” Brawley said. “But I just think we should be super clear about how this was or wasn't doing something, because I'm not interested in putting things in code that just make people feel better. I'm hoping that we can do things that work.”
Brawley and Martinez were among seven Assembly members who voted to postpone the ordinance indefinitely, while Sulte, Mark Littlefield, Zac Johnson and Karen Bronga voted against postponement.
Mayor Suzanne LaFrance said the administration is examining ways to improve what she described as “major infrastructure issues” to make Anchorage a more pedestrian-friendly city.
