A new law means less street parking but safer crossings for pedestrians.

If you drive a car on residential streets around town, you’ve likely found yourself in a situation that you know is unsafe. You pull up to a stop sign but can’t see left or right around the parked cars on the busy street– you find yourself knowingly creeping out well beyond the curb, your vehicle poking out halfway into the street, just to see if the coast is clear.

It’s even worse if you’re on foot or on a bicycle, stepping or pedaling out pretty far just to get eyes on the road, and basically hoping for the best.

This is not just anecdotal. According to a California Assembly analysis of Assembly Bill 413, “Intersections are dangerous. According to the Federal Highway Administration, of the 38,824 traffic fatalities in the United States in 2020, 10,626 of them were at an intersection; 1,674 of those fatalities were pedestrians representing nearly 25 percent of all pedestrian fatalities. Nearly half of all traffic injuries occur at intersections.”

That’s the bad news.

The good news is there is a pretty basic way to improve safety at intersections– create more open space and visibility by prohibiting parking near the corner, a practice known as “daylighting.”

Assembly Bill 413, California’s daylighting rule, was signed into law in 2023, aligning the state with 43 others that prohibit parking from a set distance from a crosswalk, marked or unmarked; in this case, for a distance of 20 feet. The law phased in over a year, with warnings starting in 2024 and enforcement taking effect on Jan. 1 of this year. That means where you could park in the past up to the edge of the curb, you are now required to leave a 20-foot buffer. (An unmarked crosswalk is defined as a street that might as well have one– a 90-degree intersection with sidewalks on both sides of the street.)

Even after the year-long phase-in, local officials are prioritizing education and outreach over enforcement.

“It’s a difficult one from the sense of ‘what is 20 feet?’ No one is going to take out a tape measure and measure 20 feet– we want to really work with the community on this,” says Marissa Garcia, an engineer for the City of Monterey. “We would not cite you on the first offense. We really want to focus on education first.”

That means only repeat offenders who continue to park in the same spot in Monterey are likely to face fines of $125; others will receive an informational handout.

In Salinas, officials are similarly pursuing an education-first approach, and encouraging residents to report violations on the SalinasConnect app.

Garcia says it’s likely to be a few years until there’s statistical evidence of whether or not daylighting is working to make intersections safer. But it’s immediately visible to the public that there is less parking, especially where red striping on the curb is going in, making it quite obvious that there’s less street parking than there used to be.

(In Seaside, the Public Works and Police departments are starting out with a handful of pilot intersections, painting curbs at particularly high-traffic corners. Requests for striping curbs are flowing in for intersections all over the city.)

“This is not about trying to take parking away, this is about safety,” Garcia adds. “This is the intent of [the law].”

Even if people are noticing the loss of parking, I think it’s encouraging that they are also seeing the safety benefits. Thai Alanis, a photographer who lives in Marina, says it can be hard to find parking in her neighborhood– but she appreciates the obvious safety improvements. “My blind driveway is no longer blocked, creating a huge danger for me and other residents,” she says. “I think it’s improved safety. Having more visibility has only been a good thing even if parking may be harder. I feel the safety is worth it.”

To me, the balance is clear– we tolerate too much persistent danger on our streets every day, and overstate the need for parking (and the convenience associated with street parking).

As Seaside Police Chief Nick Borges told City Council on March 20 in a presentation on the daylighting law, quoting the city’s parking specialist, Iris Klotz: “Maintenance has a cost, but life is priceless.”

We’ve all gotten used to parking wherever we want. I trust we can get used to safer intersections too.

SARA RUBIN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@montereycountynow.com