Observation At The Pedestrian Crosswalk Of Hamelin Hall

The observations for this research assignment were gathered at the pedestrian crosswalk on Laurier Avenue, separating Hamelin Hall from Tabaret Hall. This crosswalk is regulated by a traffic light that is controlled by a push-to-walk safety button. The pressing of this button by a pedestrian activates a ‘safe to cross’ indicator on the traffic light after a delay of about 30 seconds. I observed this crosswalk over the course of four days in February (the 12th to the 16th), in sessions of 30 minutes per day between 12:45-1: 15 pm. The social activity I observed was pedestrians walking to, and then across, the crosswalk, in groups of various sizes. These group sizes were largely dependant on time of the observations; as it got closer

Humans have been socialized to obey the norm of waiting for a green light before crossing the road. In fact, this norm against jaywalking has been formalized in Ottawa and is legally enforced with a $50 monetary sanction if this law is broken. Nevertheless, the vast majority of people in my observations (and admittedly myself), jaywalk in spite of these laws, as a way to save time and because jaywalking with no cars in sight is an action with little-perceived

Thus, the choice not to jaywalk when in a group of strangers stems in part from people’s desire to manage their impression; because they know that everyone has been socialized to believe that jaywalking is bad, the would-be jaywalker waits at the crosswalk, with the aim of conveying themselves to others in the most favourable light. As aforementioned, when alone, these same people jaywalk, foregoing their front stage performance of being law-abiding and acting on the basis of their Freudian