You’ll soon be looking at a $40 citation for parking within 20 feet of a crosswalk, as a new state law is kicking in requiring 20 feet of “daylight” between parked cars and crosswalks, though they won’t be handing out the fines until January 1, 2025.
The state of California passed a new traffic law that took effect in January of this year, but it hasn’t actually taken effect yet. We noted in January that the new “daylighting” parking law would prohibit drivers from parking within 20 feet of a pedestrian crosswalk in hopes of keeping a 20-foot buffer from that crosswalk. But the traffic ticketers have not been enforcing the new law all year.
— SFMTA (@SFMTA_Muni) November 6, 2024
They will be soon. The SF Municipal Transit Agency (SFMTA) announced today that they will start enforcing the “daylighting” parking law this coming Monday, November 11. They’ll only be issuing warning citations at first, but they’ll start issuing $40 fines for parking within 20 feet of the crosswalk starting on January 1, 2025.
“Daylighting increases the visual field of both pedestrians crossing the street, and drivers pulling up to an intersection,” SFMTA said when the law was passed. “For pedestrians, daylighting means that they don’t have to venture into the intersection and peek around parked cars to see if they have a clear path to cross. This is especially important for children, who are less visible at intersections.”…