By Sia Ling Xin

AN ANTI-JAYWALKING day in Singapore might just be the thing to stop people from jaywalking and cut the number of deaths on the road because of such behaviour, a team of undergraduates has found.

In a survey of more than 700 Singaporeans done three weeks ago by nine first-year students from Singapore Management University (SMU), about two in three respondents said that they would not jaywalk on the day itself.

Almost half also felt that such a day would discourage jaywalking in the long run.

Team member Lin Ming Min, 19, said: "We know it's hard to quit the habit of jaywalking, but we hope that as more
people realise how jaywalking can put one's life in jeopardy, it will become a thing of the past."

In the first quarter of this year, seven out of 10 reported fatal road accidents were caused by jaywalking. Last year, about two in three of the 62 pedestrians killed in traffic accidents were jaywalkers.

More jaywalkers have also been nabbed: 6,200 summonses for jaywalking were issued in the first nine months of this year, up by almost 17 per cent from the same period last year.

The idea for an anti-jaywalking  day came from one of the group's friends.

Miss Lin said: "One of our friends saw people holding up anti-jaywalking signs on the street when he was in Hong
Kong, and we thought it'd be interesting to do it on a big scale."

The students had been brainstorming for a school community- service project, and hit on jaywalking after chancing upon earlier newspaper reports on the alarming number of deaths from jaywalking.

"We realised that we also could have lost our lives because of jaywalking," she said.

In the survey, about seven in 10 respondents cited convenience and laziness as their reasons for jaywalking, although almost the same proportion agreed that it was dangerous.

The survey also found that more people felt that fines would be an effective deterrent, rather than measures such as
building more barriers, installing more traffic lights, and educating the public on the risks of jaywalking.

The team has submitted a report of its survey results to the Traffic Police, in which the students also recommend the implementation of an anti-jaywalking day.

The Traffic Police were not able to respond by press time if they would consider doing so.

Full-time national serviceman Teo Wei Jie, 20, felt that an anti-jaywalking day would make a "boring issue like jaywalking exciting, as it's actually important enough to warrant a special day".

Sales manager Marcia Ang, 25, who jaywalks every day to get to a bus stop, said that she would try not to jaywalk on an anti-jaywalking day itself, but that she probably could not sustain it in the long run.

"I know that jaywalking isn't safe, but I do it anyway as it's convenient," she said.

lingxin@sph.com.sg

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