Jaywalking in Poland ?

I have noticed that in most cases, Poles will stand very obediently at a road crossing when the 'red man' is highlighted, even when it would be safe to cross when there are no cars around. Once the 'green man' appears everyone dutifully starts crossing the road :o)

Last year when I was in Warsaw, by the main Railway Station, I crossed a road , but not at a traffic light crossing - I made sure there were no cars coming from either side, and briskly crossed over to the other side. I got stopped by two policemen who asked what I thought I was doing ? I explained that I was simply crossing the road, and they explained this was illegal - I mentioned that I live in London and people do it all the time, and fortunately I was let off.... but had to promise not to do it again !

Anyone got any views on this ? Jaywalking , I thought was crossing the road without any due care or attention !

its like you said - street is empty and alot of them will wait for the green man.

yet in a supermarket its a free for all

.... and don't you think the 'old babcie' are the main culprits in a free for all !!

i dont even know what you mean.

all im saying is that they dont jaywalk, however they do push and shove in a supermarket (in my experience - it is not everyone but it is a proportional oppostite to here where they jaywalk more and shove less)

what I meant Daffy ... is that in a supermarket quite a lot of the pushing and shoving is done by the 'old babcie' = 'old grannies'

I got a ticket once for crossing while on a "yellow light "( in a middle of a night when there were no cars, no people, and the policemen were hidden behind a bush), so it's just being well taught, precautious.Don't think it's got to do with law abiding....

Iit's been said many times here that people pop into the road without looking so.. it also happens and make drivers let go their anger on forum etc

It's about 200zl fine if you get it wrong. If you are in a group [among other members of the public] the first person to set foot on the road, when he shouldn't, is fined.

The reason. Other people will blindly follow, and possible tragedy.

It's similar in Germany.

It works in your favour here after 10:00pm when there is no red or green, only amber for cars.

It's also worth knowing that if you ride a bike across a crossing [pavement to pavement] you will get a fine too.

It's worse in Switzerland.

Not only do they get you for jaywalking, they also get you for not picking up a basket in a supermarket!

I had a friend who got caught for this - he only wanted to buy a bar of chocolate, but he got stopped by the security guards and the police were summoned and gave him a caution!

and do they get upset if you dont wear a bathing cap whilst swimming...?

They do in Pruszkow
Ordnung muss sein!

I had a group of girls over from Poland and they were shocked when people crossed roads whenever they felt like it. They also had difficulty remembering which way to look when crossing roads, which lead to some scary moments.

I thought Jaywalking is illegal everywhere. In NY it is, but not really enforced.

My wife doesnt let me jaywalk :-(((

'Policemen hiding behind a bush' that is so funny. Here, it's hard to find a policeman to do anything. We even have cycle lanes on pavements here.

That wouldn't work in Poland then ?

I've seen the fake police cars in PL. Made out of wood :)

True, i dont know about the bigger cities but where i live the cops just ride around. Like Daddy cool..

I saw a great sight the other day - a motorcycle cop sat on his bike outside Hard Rock Cafe, surrounded by young women.

Its not illegal in many countries. Jaywalking is an American word, there is no British equivalent.

were there fake Policemen in the fake cars ? .... the police in Poland don't appear too bright ... maybe I have only seen the wooden ones !

LOL it's posible :) I'm sure they though about it.

I haven't seen wooden ones! :(
Just some old police car wrecks half-hidden in the bushes aside from the road.

You may laugh, but it works - for the first week :D after that all drivers know, which car's a fake. My father has a whole mental map of Poland with fakes ticked off ;)

It can be even 500 PLN and that's almost 1/4 of average salary... but outside of city centers or in smaller towns people usually don't give a damn anyway.

unless the real police car is hidden behind the fake one... they do that sometime e.g. at the end of the year when they have to work on the statistics

Polish policemen, aren't they clever :D

I got fined for jaywalking across an empty road within 2 days of arriving in Warsaw. I didn't know it was illegal. Never seen a fine processed so fast. 200ZL handed over, no receipt and a friendly wave goodbye from the policeman. Not that I'm suspicious....

I got fined in Kutno for jaywalking - 250 zloty. I tried the old "ignorant foreigner" trick but this was not accepted so I said OK, I'll pay the fine expecting it to be about 20 zloty and was amazed when it was 250 - thats a weeks wages for the average citizen of Kutno.

At the time I was actually on the way to make an investment that would have given jobs to 6 Kutno people, but was so angry I never did it and even though I now have to visit Kutno maybe 5-6 times a year I have never spent a single grosze there - I will not eat, drink or take a leak while I am there.

That's a shame. Bit like cutting your nose off to spite your face ?

Could happen anywhere, same as speeding I expect ?

in November i was in Warsaw visiting a friend and decided to walk to Arkadia and was caught by the police for jaywalking. i was afraid i would have to pay a "fine" so i made up a surname "Goldberg" which puzzled the police officers because it didn't sound like a typical Polish surname to them and then to my astonishment they let me go.

You did not have to show documents? Odd.

I also had a pleasure to be caught in a small town of Jedrzejow about 3 years ago. Luckily, I was just warned about crossing the street away from the cross walk (zebra). Maybe because, after his first words from his mouth were 'Documenty prosze" (Documents please) I showed him my US Passport. The policeman smiled and he was nice.

But the fine for speeding is less than the fine for jaywalking. Plus I acknowledge that speeding is dangerous and it is regulated by signs that any foreigner can understand.

In Kutno I looked left and right, checked nothing was coming and crossed a road, just like my Mum taught me when I was a kid. Nobody was harmed.