As Arturo Mendez stood waiting for a crossing signal at Santa Clara and Ninth streets in downtown San Jose, he admitted he’s had a few scary moments making his way through the crosswalks on the wide, busy streets.
“A lot of times it kind of feels like they’re going to hit you, even when you’re in the crosswalk,” said Mendez, 18, a San Jose City College student who lives in the city.
A new state law, AB 413 by Assemblyman Alex Lee, a Milpitas Democrat, aims to make those crossings safer for Mendez and other pedestrians. It prohibits parking too close to crosswalks to improve visibility for drivers and pedestrians, a concept safety advocates call “daylighting.” The law, effective this year, has a 12-month grace period before violators get dinged with costly parking tickets tucked under their windshield wipers.
“Intersections are some of the most fatal sections of our roads where cars, bikes, and pedestrians cross paths,” said Lee, adding that California’s pedestrian fatality rate is nearly 25% higher than the national average, and 43 other states have daylighting laws that have been shown to be effective. “Daylighting is a simple solution that improves visibility of intersections for everyone.”
Cars parked at an intersection impede visibility two ways — drivers can’t see pedestrians standing behind the cars, and pedestrians can’t see around the parked cars without stepping into the street. The new law generally prohibits parking a vehicle within 20 feet of either side of any marked or unmarked crosswalk, or within 15 feet of any crosswalk with a curb extension or bulb-out. What does that look like? A Toyota Camry or Honda Accord are both about 16 feet long, a Honda Civic or Toyota Prius are both about 15 feet long.
Cities are just beginning to grapple with how they’re going to put the new law into effect — especially in bustling downtowns like San Francisco’s where street parking already is scarce. Most motorists are unaware of the new rule, and the law didn’t come with funding for changing the curb and street markings.
“There’s a big gap in the public’s awareness of this legislation,” said Colin Heyne, a spokesman for the San Jose Department of Transportation. “We have more than 60,000 intersections in this city, so we’re not going to be able to paint the curbs red for every one of them. We need help from the state in hopefully educating drivers about this new law.”
Sean Maher, a spokesman for the Oakland city administration, said that the city is still developing an approach as the measure takes effect.
The crosswalk parking law is among a number of new measures state officials are taking to reverse an alarming rise in traffic and pedestrian deaths. Annual traffic fatalities in the state have risen 10% from 3,884 to 4,285, and pedestrian fatalities 18% from 940 to 1,108 from 2017-2021, according to the California Office of Traffic Safety’s latest annual report.
Another law enacted this year, AB 645, by Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, a Burbank Democrat, allows six cities including San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco to begin trials of speed enforcement cameras that will automatically enforce speed limits.
And SB 961, a bill in the works by state Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, would require new cars in California to be equipped with technology to make it harder to go more than 10 mph over the posted speed limit.
San Jose and Oakland have seen dozens of traffic fatalities in recent years, with pedestrian deaths accounting for a significant share. In 2023, San Jose recorded 27 pedestrian deaths, 55% of the 49 total traffic fatalities. Oakland had 13 pedestrian deaths last year, 45% of the 29 total traffic fatalities.
Lee’s crosswalk daylighting law says local governments may allow parking for bicycles or motorized scooters within the 20-foot zone. And they can allow auto parking closer to crosswalks if they show it can be justified by established traffic safety standards and mark the parking space with paint or signage.
Around downtown San Jose, there are a number of areas with marked and often metered parking within 20 feet of a crosswalk.
The Santa Clara and Ninth streets intersection is among them. Sabriya Karaca, 40, of San Francisco, parked in one of the spots set about 10 feet back from the cross walk to make a phone call, and said she was unaware of the new law. Though she understood the idea behind it, removing the spot to comply she said would make it harder to park downtown.
At the east entrance to San Jose State University along 10th Street, about two feet of red curb paint separates a marked parking space from the crosswalk where students cross the busy road that connects to the Interstate 280 freeway.
Heyne said San Jose is just beginning to look at what parking spaces may be affected by the new law and what to do about them.
“This law is an unfunded mandate so, like other cities, we do not have plans to adjust or add red paint unless we have concerns about specific locations,” Heyne said.
Especially in places like residential neighborhoods, where there are few curb markings, residents will have to just know not to park too close to a crosswalk or intersection, just as they do with fire hydrants.
“We don’t put red paint around every fire hydrant in the city, we expect drivers to know,” Heyne said. “It’s going to be the same for this.”
Mendez, the city college student, said while he appreciates the new law’s effort to make walking downtown safer, he hopes that can be done without sacrificing too many parking spaces.
“It’s kind of also hard to find parking,” he said.