Comment by trothamel

Note that like most laws, Jaywalking laws tend to make more sense when you read them. Here's the law in New York:

https://law.justia.com/codes/new-york/2015/vat/title-7/artic...

  1152. Crossing  at  other  than  crosswalks.

  (a) Every pedestrian
  crossing a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk  or
  within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right of
  way to all vehicles upon the roadway.

  (b) Any  pedestrian  crossing a roadway at a point where a pedestrian
  tunnel or overhead pedestrian crossing has been provided shall yield the
  right of way to all vehicles upon the roadway.

  (c) No pedestrian shall cross a roadway intersection diagonally unless 
  authorized by official traffic-control devices; and, when authorized  to
  cross  diagonally,  pedestrians  shall cross only in accordance with the
  official traffic-control devices pertaining to such crossing movements.

So what's criminalized isn't crossing the road - it's crossing without checking. Which seems like a good idea to me. Looking on the other side of the spectrum, Wyoming's law is:

  (a) Every pedestrian crossing a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway.

  (b) Any pedestrian crossing a roadway at a point where a pedestrian tunnel or overhead pedestrian crossing has been provided shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway.

  (c) Between adjacent intersections at which traffic-control signals are in operation pedestrians shall not cross at any place except in a marked crosswalk.

  (d) No pedestrian shall cross a roadway intersection diagonally unless authorized by official traffic-control devices.  When authorized to cross diagonally, pedestrians shall cross only in accordance with the official traffic-control devices pertaining to the crossing movements.

Which is similar, except for (c), which only matters when you're close to a crosswalk - and almost certainly, on a busy road.