City May Delay Enforcement Of Jaywalking Law

Cambridge may wait as long as a year before trying to enforce the antijaywalking law that went into effect this summer.

City Traffic Director Robert E. Rudolph said yesterday that it would be "quite hard" to do "any enforcement" until September, 1965, when a similar ordinance takes effect in Boston. He made it clear that he feared citizens would become confused and resentful if they could jaywalk in Boston but were fined for it in Cambridge.

Theoretically, jaywalkers here are now subject to a $1 fine, which rises to $2 after the third violation. Drivers who don't stop for pedestrians in crosswalks may be penalized $20.

But, in fact, no jaywalking tickets have yet been handed out anywhere in Cambridge, and, according to Chief Daniel J. Brennan, the police department has none to hand out.

Rudolph said his office had decided to concentrate on a campaign to inform the public of the dangers of jaywalking, rather than take money from offenders. Even without tickets, the new law means "you no longer have the right to walk in front of a car and expect it to stop," he explained.

Asked about Mt. Auburn St., which is currently one-way while the Department of Public Works repairs it, Rudolph said that it would revert to a two-way street when the project is completed.

He added, however, that the street would permanently be made one-way when the City installed a computerized system of traffic lights in the Square.

A more immediate project, Rudolph indicated, will be an attempt "to straighten up Brattle Square" by painting crosswalks across the big intersection.

Although some of the changes being implemented by the City were proposed in a traffic report sponsored by the University, the Coop, and Harvard Trust Company, Rudolph said that he had not accepted all the study's suggestions. "I personally feel we can make Harvard Square traffic move without tearing down the kiosk," he said.