It is common to see pedestrians crossing in the middle of a street or ignoring a traffic light, deliberately or unconsciously, especially in small and medium-sized cities. Two decades ago, there were few cars, and the traffic laws were inadequate. Therefore, people developed the mind-set that they will not be punished for this common behavior and that there is nothing wrong in jaywalking.
However, nowadays, with the rapid increase in the number of vehicles, jaywalkers have become one of the major factors causing traffic jams and accidents. Traffic management departments are paying increasing attention to the phenomenon and local governments are considering jaywalkers" behavior as a kind of deterioration in moral standards.
Currently, when the traffic police fine errant pedestrians, the jaywalkers often refuse to pay the fine, saying they don’t have any money in their pocket. In order to cope with the problem, some cities have taken more stringent actions. For instance, the traffic administrative department in Shanghai sends its employees out to photograph jaywalkers on the streets, mails the photographs to the jaywalkers’ employers and asks the enterprises to punish the jaywalkers. Or, the traffic administrative department will post the pictures of jaywalkers in office buildings as a kind of warning.
In Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province, apart from a fine and education by the work unit, an employee’s behavior in the street is also linked to his/her income, or jaywalkers will be detained by the traffic administrative department until the leaders of their work unit come to get them. Some other cities, such as Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, have rules linking violations of traffic rules to each unit’s bonus issuance and performance reviews.
Those measures have provoked widespread controversy. While proponents argue that the measures will be helpful in rectifying people’s behavior, opponents believe they will not be as effective as anticipated and, on the contrary, some of the measures actually exceed the relevant departments’ authority and violate citizens’ privacy. Many people ask: Is punishment the only way to prevent traffic law violations? What should people do to eliminate the discourteous behavior?
Not an ideal solution
Jiang Dehua (contributor to Xinhuanet): In my opinion, the actions of the governments of Nanjing and Zhengzhou expose their tendency to abuse administrative power, which is a dangerous signal.
From the measures enacted by the two cities, we find that the law is still inadequate in regulating the administrative punishment rights of the government. The Law on Administrative Penalties promulgated in 1996 is becoming outdated and needs immediate amendment. Some deputies to the National People’s Congress proposed amending the law at this year’s NPC session.
As a matter of fact, with regard to administrative penalties, the actions taken by Zhengzhou and Nanjing have legal defects. The Article 88 of the Law on Road Traffic Safety says that the penalties for illegal road safety acts include a warning, fine, temporary seizure or revocation of a driver’s license and detention. However, the problem is that the punishments adopted by the two cities are not administrative penalties. Furthermore, the Law on Administrative Penalties does not stipulate that no other punishment should be imposed on violators apart from administrative punishments. Therefore, it provides a possibility of punishing traffic law violators twice, which is contradictory to the principle of the Law on Administrative Penalties: the defendant should only be punished by one measure.
The measures taken by Zhengzhou and Nanjing remind us that some government departments are striving to expand their administrative power so as to facilitate their administrative management or appeal to their self-interest. If we fail to improve the legal system and effectively define the administrative power, such things will recur. It will be detrimental to our endeavor toward ruling the country by law.
Wang Yuchu (contributor to Dazhong Daily): I don’t think the two cities’ methods can work well.
First of all, the policy of deducting a bonus and income applies to employees of schools, government organizations, institutions and enterprises. Certainly those people should obey regulations and laws. However, according to the legal principle that one offense should be punished by one prosecution, I think that after a person is fined by the traffic police, he/she should not receive any other punishment. In other words, the regulation goes against the spirit of the law and is unfair to employees in public work units.
Second, the regulation that says bonuses should be deducted from jaywalkers presumes that all employees have bonuses. What should those who have no bonuses do? What about those who are not civil servants? How should they be punished if they violate the traffic laws? In addition, a bonus should be distributed according to one’s work performance, but not one’s behavior in the street. Therefore, those measures don’t conform to the principle of “dispensing reward and punishment impartially.”
Third, will the jaywalkers’ enterprises cooperate with the traffic administrative department? The traffic police are to report to the enterprises, which will deduct the jaywalkers’ bonus accordingly. However, the prerequisite is that the concerned enterprises are willing to cooperate with the traffic police, which is not a legal obligation or duty of the enterprises.
To sum up, I believe the measures adopted by the two cities are not feasible or practical. In order to cut into the jaywalking phenomenon, I think the traffic administrative department should call for all citizens to study the traffic laws and put up posters at crosswalks. A serious fine should be imposed on jaywalkers to achieve a better effect.
Wang Fang (journalist with Beijing Daily): The traffic departments, to some extent, are forced to take those measures. It certainly has some positive effect in rectifying social behavior, improving the public environment and enhancing the sense of responsibility of the citizens. However, administrative punishment should not be the sole measure. The government should improve the teaching of public virtue to citizens through various means.
Very necessary
Deng Jiansheng (contributor to People’s Daily): The reason for the jaywalking phenomenon does not lie in the level of citizens’ quality, but in a traditional management mind-set: Many pedestrians believe that traffic lights are there for vehicles only, and some traffic police also follow this hidden rule. Because the traffic lights cannot restrain pedestrians, some cities set up a special set of traffic lights designed only for pedestrians. If that still is ineffective, the administrative department will send more traffic police to major roads at rush hours. However, pedestrians will think that they can cross against the light if there is no policeman. What’s more, the law that says a vehicle involved in a traffic accident is also responsible, even though it may not be at fault, indulges the jaywalkers.
How to resolve the problem? Many people talk about an improvement in people’s moral standards. In fact, this is just one side. Why do some jaywalkers who never obey traffic rules at home become obedient in a foreign country? Why do some people who spit in public never do the same thing at home? Apart from improving moral standards, the public environment for obeying the law is also crucial. How to establish a sound legal environment where all citizens’ behavior abides by the law is a crucial problem.
Liu Kejun (freelance writer): To comment on those new measures, which are supposed to promote citizens’ moral standards and prevent traffic law violations, I think we should be optimistic about their positive side and encourage their implementation.
As we all know, for a long time Chinese citizens have lacked a sense of traffic safety and the rule of law. Many pedestrians pay no attention to traffic lights. The loss of life and property caused by such negligence has been significant. According to statistics from the Ministry of Public Security, in 2005, there were 450,254 traffic accidents in China, leading to 98,738 deaths, 469,911 injuries and a direct property loss of over 1.88 billion yuan. Yang Jun, Director of the Traffic Management Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, once exclaimed, “All citizens should behave themselves on the streets and think about how to walk or ride before they go out.”
Since the promulgation of the new Law on Road Traffic Safety, local governments at all levels have enhanced their efforts to rectify pedestrians’ behavior, with little effect. Take Nanjing for example. From March 1 to 10, over 1,486 jaywalkers were fined by the local traffic management department, but many pedestrians are still breaking the traffic rules. What is the reason? Compared with vehicles, it is hard to detect pedestrians’ illegal conduct. On the other hand, a 20-yuan fine will not exert a powerful influence on people’s mind-set.
Heavier punishment must be given. How? Deducting jaywalkers’ bonus is a helpful measure. Jaywalkers’ behavior is against the law, and is also against social virtue. In the legal area, the traffic management department can charge a fine and report jaywalkers’ behavior to their work units. In the moral area, jaywalkers’ employers have the responsibility and obligation to educate or punish their employees, as everyone should be responsible for public transportation security. I need to mention that we have precedents for punishing those who violate social virtue. For instance, Liu Haiyang, who poured sulfuric acid on two bears in the Beijing Zoo, was punished by his school, Tsinghua University. From this case, we can find that enterprises’ cooperation with the traffic police can work well.
I believe that while some people defy the traffic law, they dare not disobey their employers’ discipline. Although some may be in defiance of the traffic policemen’s fine, they cannot face up to their colleagues’ criticism. It’s like combating prostitution: People may feel nothing if they are fined, but they will feel guilty if their relatives know about their conduct. From this perspective, it is not a bad idea to report the jaywalkers to their employers. What’s more, the enterprises or companies can take this opportunity to raise their employees’ sense of discipline and social virtue.
Jiang Wenming (teacher at Beijing Yuxiang Primary School): It is a social norm for pedestrians to obey traffic rules. Jaywalkers pose a great potential threat to society. Apart from education, serious punishment should also be adopted. Singapore’s effort in banning chewing gum shows that severe punishment will greatly raise people’s awareness.
Li Rong (Beijing resident): The new traffic law emphasizes protection of the weak. However, it does not mean that pedestrians can break the traffic law at will. A pedestrian who suddenly crosses the road ignoring the traffic light can cause serious consequences, with the worst claiming the life of both the pedestrian and the driver. Therefore, jaywalkers must be punished severely so as to establish a sound social order.