IT can be a lonely, and costly, road when you don't think you've done anything wrong.

Just ask Rockhampton's Larry Bray.

Larry, 38, reckons the police stepped over the line when they charged him for jaywalking for crossing the road at Main St, Park Avenue.

He contested the $40 fine and took the matter to court.

Earlier this week Larry represented himself in the Rockhampton Magistrates Court.

He lost and was fined $550 and additional court costs of $84.

The Bulletin wasn't in court for the matter, but Larry contacted the paper shortly afterwards.

He said he was doing it tough when the original road-crossing incident happened in April last year.

"It was exactly two weeks after I lost my mum," Larry said.

Larry claimed he was at least 20 or 30 metres from the nearest zebra crossing in Main St.

"I cut across in front of Foodworks where everyone does," he said.

"The (zebra) crossing is dangerous because nobody looks for cars.

"It's only safe when the lollipop lady is there."

Instead of paying the $40 fine, Larry took the matter to court looking to get justice by pleading not guilty.

"If I did it, I would've plead guilty."

A court representative confirmed Larry's fine in relation to crossing a road within 20m of a crossing for pedestrians.

The Bulletin understands police told the court Larry was about 5m from the crossing when he was spotted jaywalking.

Jaywalking: What you need to know

Jaywalking is a pedestrian crossing a street without regard to traffic regulations.

The term was used for one of the first times in a 1915 New York Times article where they stated they found the term "jay walking" "highly shocking".

In the early days of public streets in the United States, roads were legally to be shared equally between cars and pedestrians.

Despite the fact that jaywalking has been shown to be safer than crossing at crosswalks, three out of five pedestrian deaths on the streets in the USA occur outside of crosswalks.

Source: www.todayifoundout.com