Weekend Homework: How’s Daylighting Working in Your City?

On January 1, California’s “Daylighting Law” went into effect and traffic enforcement agencies around the country are responding to it in different ways. 

For those of you unfamiliar with the term and missed out on 2023’s legislative push by Assemblymember Alex Lee, daylighting is when municipalities prohibit parking within 20 feet of any marked or unmarked crosswalk and within 15 feet of crosswalks with curb extensions. Daylighting has been shown to increase the visibility of people in crosswalks, reducing crashes and saving lives. 

Since it’s now a state law that municipalities can and eventually must enforce daylighting, SBCA is interested in seeing how the law is/isn’t working throughout the state. The legislation gives cities some flexibility on when they need to start ticketing, so some cities are ahead of others in enforcing the law. (The law itself encourages warning tickets starting January 2024, and specifies January 2025 for actual tickets.)

Though the safety benefits are numerous, some mainstream media windshield reporting finds that the state is “banning cars” in some areas, for little discernable reason.

News headlines show different impacts in cities.

• In Alameda, warnings are being issued when cars violate the law and the city promises that tickets are forthcoming for violators soon.
• Sunnyvale and Santa Clara in the Bay Area Peninsula and Beverly Hills have moved straight to handing out tickets after warning drivers the law was coming last year.
• Culver City Public Works is painting curbs red, warning motorists, and explaining safety benefits.
• In San Francisco, activists have taken to painting curbs red to warn drivers that they can be ticketed, but SFMTA has responded by quickly repainting the curbs gray.
• Templeton police warn that even if a curb isn’t painted red, scofflaw parkers can be ticketed. 
• The South El Monte City Council postponed approving a new bikeway project in part due to concerns that all alternatives include some on-street parking removal, some of which would happen (due to state law) no matter what alternative is selected.

Has there been any changes in parking in your city since the daylighting law went into effect? We’d love to hear from you. You can of course leave us a comment or reach out to us on Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook, or that other social media site.