Bill to End Street Parking Within 20 Feet Of Crosswalks Signed Into Law By Gov. Newsom

A bill to end all street parking in the state within 20 feet of a designated crosswalk or intersection was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday.

Assembly Bill 413, authored by Assemblyman Alex Lee (D-San Jose), will specifically prohibit the stopping, standing, or parking of a vehicle within 20 feet of the vehicle approach side of any unmarked or marked crosswalk or 15 feet of any crosswalk where a curb extension is present. The 15-20 foot gap, known as “daylighting,” is to go into effect in 2025, with local jurisdictions only being able to give warnings instead of citations for doing so, unless there is a pre-existing law forbidding it in the city.

Assemblyman Lee authored the bill this year to improve public safety by “increasing the visibility of pedestrians, bicyclists, and other vehicles.” Lee also pointed out that California’s pedestrian fatality rate is 25% higher than the rest of the country, with the most overall deaths of any state. Last year alone in California, 958 pedestrian deaths were recorded. AB 413 is one way to help combat that and to expand the practice statewide rather than just in cities that passed local daylighting laws such as Los Angeles and San Francisco.

“Daylighting is a proven way we can make our streets safer for everyone, and 43 other states have already implemented some version of daylighting,” said Lee in a statement earlier this year. “By making it easier for motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists to see each other at intersections, we can take a simple and important step to help us all safely share the road.”

Support for, opposition against AB 413

Support for AB 413 was split across party lines all year. While both Democrats and Republicans were both in favor of pedestrian safety measures, there was disagreement if daylighting was the right way to do it. Supporters pointed to statistics showing that daylighting measures reduced accidents at intersections by 8.8 percent.

“Daylighting is an effective and affordable safety measure that will combat the rising tide of pedestrian deaths in California,” said Marc Vukcevich, co-director of state policy for Streets For All. “We need to make real strides to ensure our streets are designed to support and protect our most vulnerable road users, and we’re proud to be working with Assemblymember Alex Lee to do just that.”

Detractors, meanwhile bemoaned the loss of parking spaces in areas already pressed for parking, and insisted that other measures, such as crossing walk enhancements were the way to go. Others also stated that this was a local matter, as intersections could vary differently from area to area, and that many places where this has been a problem have already enacted daylighting laws.

“Places have already been doing this, so this bill was seen as unnecessary by many,” added Dana, a Capitol staffer, to the Globe. “Yeah, they reduce accidents, and that’s why many cities already put it in place. Doing this statewide, that is just going to mess up many cities, especially older cities that have good sight lines for drivers at intersections but also need as many street parking places as possible. This is just going to worsen congestion.”

The split in support was most noticeable last month during the Senate and Assembly votes. In the Assembly, the bill passed 57-18 with 5 abstentions, while in the Senate it passed 29-7 with 4 abstentions. The divisive bill then moved to the Governor’s desk where he signed it without comment on Tuesday.

“This will change a lot of intersections and parking in the coming years,” added Dana. “You can bet that people will be pouring over first available data to see if accidents did go down, or if this practice was expanded to the entire state all for naught.”

AB 413 is to go into effect January 1, 2025.