A jaywalker is a person who walks across a road in a place or way that is not safe — not at a proper crossing, or without watching the traffic. The word is American in feel, and it is not a kind compliment: it paints the walker as careless. It started in the United States around 1917. Though actually, it was not only about safety for the walker. Car people also pushed the word so that streets would belong more to cars, and so that walking in the roadway could be treated as a fault. There was already an older phrase, jay driver, for a driver who did not watch the road; jaywalker was built on that same pattern. In Taiwan you more often name the act (亂穿馬路) than this exact English noun.