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.

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.”

The law only applies to parking “in the direction of approaching traffic,” per SFMTA. Or as they explain it more specifically, “On a two-way street, only the space on the right-side approaching a crosswalk as one is driving is affected. However, on a one-way street, both the left and the right curb areas 20 feet from the crosswalk are no parking zones.”

This is to comply with a California state law on daylighting that passed in 2023.

In the SFMTA’s most recent announcement, they note that “This law applies to all crosswalks, whether the crossing is painted or not.”

That’s fair enough, but shouldn’t anyplace you can’t park have the curb painted red, to help motorists avoid this mistake? SFMTA seems to admit that not all of these now-banned parking spaces will have their curbs painted red.

“If the curb is not painted red, park at least 20 feet – about one car length – away from any marked or unmarked crosswalk,” the agency says. So it seems like they’re expecting motorists to just eyeball the 20-foot rule, and that’s likely to lead to some frustration.

This might strike you as signature California nanny-state rule-making. But in reality, most states already have this rule. Per SFMTA, “Over 40 states currently have laws that require vehicles to keep a distance of generally 20 feet from crosswalks.”

Related: New California Parking Law Could Trip Up Car Owners In SF If They're Not Paying Attention [SFist]

Image: SFMTA