On January 1, the California Daylighting Law will go into effect. This means cars will no longer be allowed to park within 20 feet of an approaching crosswalk or intersection.
At the end of 2023, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 413 — also known as the California Daylighting Law.
It will be a big adjustment for car-dependent Californians, like Damian Garcia.
“Sometimes I circle the block for 20, 30 minutes just to find a parking spot. If you don't have a garage, it's pretty difficult.”
Garcia was born and raised in San Francisco, where parking is notoriously difficult. AB 413 will eliminate more than 14,000 parking spaces here, or about five percent of the city's parking spots, and he isn’t happy about that.
Others, like San Francisco resident Cam Jimenez, think it’s unfair that spots will not be clearly marked as no parking zones.
“I get tickets a lot in the Mission because parking's so difficult there. I think the city really takes advantage of being able to ticket people. So it's just gonna, I think, be more of that.”
But proponents of the daylighting law say it’s urgently needed. California has one of the highest pedestrian injury and death rates in the nation. Until AB 413 was passed, it was one of only 10 states that didn’t have a law restricting parking near crosswalks. Some, like Texas native Amanda Mendiuta, were surprised by this.
“I actually just learned literally like I think two weeks ago that this was not a law here because I saw a car that was parked so close to the stop sign and I asked my friend, like, ‘Can they park there?’ Because that's pretty standard. Even on the driving test in Texas, that's one of the things you like, mark off, that you understand you cannot park within like 15, 20 feet of a stop sign.”
Daylighting is supposed to increase visibility for both pedestrians crossing the street and drivers approaching an intersection. Proponents of AB 413 say it’s an important step towards increasing pedestrian safety in California.
On Monday, San Francisco began issuing warning notices to vehicles parked within 20 feet of an approaching crosswalk. On January 1, the city will start issuing citations, with fines starting at $40.
You can find more information about the new restrictions from SFMTA here: https://www.sfmta.com/blog/statewide-%E2%80%98daylighting-law-warnings-begin-nov-11-2024#:~:text=Now%2C%20California%20joins%20the%20more,red%20zone%20or%20parking%20sign.
