Written By Chris Dolan and Phil Johnson
Larry from Harward asks:
I drive into the city for business and always find parking to be a pain. I hear that San Francisco is going to reduce the number of parking spots in the city streets. Is this accurate? Why would you decrease them and not increase them?
Thanks for your question, Larry. Who doesn’t love searching for parking in San Francisco? New parking laws will make that adventure take even longer, unless you want to get a stern warning in 2024, or a ticket starting in 2025.
Assembly Bill 413 is a public safety bill that will leave even more drivers circling for parking in the city’s busiest neighborhoods. The bill, signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom, prohibits parking within 20 feet of any crosswalk. The goal is to allow greater visibility for pedestrians and drivers at intersections.
Under newly created California Vehicle Code section 22500(n), vehicles are prohibited from parking within 20 feet of the approach side of any unmarked or marked crosswalk, or within 15 feet of any crosswalk with a curb extension anywhere in California. The approach side is the lane traffic directed toward the intersection.
The new law is a welcome addition to California’s Vehicle Code as California was one of only a few states that did not have a law prohibiting parking so close to intersections. In fact, the United States Uniform Vehicle Code, adopted in the 1920’s when Ford was still pumping out Model T’s, prohibited parking within 25 feet of the intersection.
California’s pedestrian fatality rate is nearly 25 percent higher than the national average, according to California’s Office of Traffic Safety. About one-in-four traffic fatalities occur at intersections, and half of all traffic injuries in the United States happen at intersections, according to the Federal Highway Administration.
The bill calls for fines, of an undetermined amount, starting in 2025. Until then, violating vehicles can expect to find a warning placed on their vehicle informing them of the new law.
Many pedestrians begin their venture through a crosswalk by taking a step or two into the crosswalk and peaking out to see if there is any oncoming traffic. The new bill allows for what traffic experts call daylighting. Daylighting is the traffic safety concept of allowing an unobstructed line of sight for all modes of transportation at an intersection.
San Francisco counted their street parking spots in 2014 and found approximately 275,500. AB 413 is expected to impact about 5 percent of those spaces, or about 13,775 spots. Fewer parking spots while circling around the Mission on a Saturday night might be annoying, but at least crossing those intersections should now be a little safer for everyone.
