SF eliminating 14,000 parking spaces as CA’s new Daylighting Law takes effect

By Tim Johns

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    SAN FRANCISCO, California (KGO) — For drivers around the Bay Area, parking just got a little bit harder.

Beginning Monday, a new state law requires cities around California to improve visibility at intersections to protect pedestrians- called “daylighting.”

That means from now on, no car will be able to park within 20 feet of any crosswalk.

“This is not just for pedestrians, this is also for the driver. What daylighting does is it gives clear sight lines to the driver to the person that’s standing in the crosswalk,” said Jodie Medeiros.

Medeiros is the executive director of Walk San Francisco.

She says daylighting has already been implemented in other cities and states around the country and has proven effective in saving lives.

In San Francisco, the city’s Municipal Transportation Agency estimates the new rules will cause a loss of about 5% of its total parking, or about 14,000 spaces.

The law also doesn’t provide cities funding to paint curbs red or remove potential parking meters already in place- leaving parking discretion up to the driver.

Facts that annoys many people.

“Where I live it’s very dense, and we’re going to have to search around more, circle around more for parking spaces,” said John Goins.

Goins told us that while he supports lawmakers doing more to keep people safe, he thinks the rule is too broad.

Goins believes the law will disproportionately impact places like San Francisco where space is more precious, as opposed to more suburban or rural communities.

“I think they should have differentiated large SUVs that definitely obstruct vision and cause problems, as opposed to cars that are smaller,” he said.

That additional inconvenience doesn’t bother everyone, though.

Some say they’re happy to spend more time finding parking if it helps protect others.

“People’s lives are more important than a little extra time looking for parking. And I don’t think it’s going to change too much,” said Neema Esfandiari.

SFMTA says it will issue warnings to anyone parked within 20 feet of intersections for the rest of the year.

Then, beginning in January, $40 fines will be handed out to drivers who park too close to crosswalks.

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