San Francisco Implements ‘Daylighting’ at Intersections

New parking rules went into effect in San Francisco this Monday, reports Amanda Bartlett in SFGate. The new rules ban parking within 20 feet of a crosswalk as part of a safety strategy known as ‘daylighting,’ which improves visibility for both drivers and pedestrians by removing obstructions from intersections. According to WalkSF, daylighting can reduce crashes by as much as 30 percent.

San Francisco drivers will receive a written warning if they violate the law. “The warning period serves as a way to raise awareness of the policy in San Francisco before SFMTA starts issuing $40 citations come Jan. 1, 2025,” Bartlett explains.

However, drivers will likely have to guess where the 20-foot zone ends at many intersections. “San Francisco does not have resources to paint every crosswalk corner approaching red, and a program that relies only on paint would require repainting every corner approximately every 5 years or so, thus it would also require significant maintenance resources going forward,” said an SFMTA spokesperson in April. The city has painted curbs at “many busy or high injury intersections.” 

The initiative is expected to remove up to 5 percent of the city’s on-street parking spaces. Safety advocates say this is a worthwhile tradeoff, particularly in light of news that 2024 could be the deadliest year for road users since the city pledged to implement Vision Zero in 2014.