No red curb, no ticket: Berkeley backs off on fining drivers for parking near crosswalks

A new street safety law will bar drivers from parking near crosswalks to lower crashes between cars and pedestrians. Parking within 20 feet of crosswalks will come with the risk of a $64 ticket. The license plate in the photograph was obscured for the privacy of the driver. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLight

Berkeley will not ticket most drivers who violate a new state law by leaving their cars too close to crosswalks if the space isn’t marked as a no-parking zone.

Parking enforcement officers have been giving out warnings for violations of California’s “daylighting” law — which at most intersections prohibits parking within 20 feet of a crosswalk in the direction traffic approaches — during the first three months of the year. They were set to start issuing $64 citations to violators on Tuesday, even if the curb by the newly illegal space where the driver parked was not painted red or otherwise marked as off-limits.

City officials now tell Berkeleyside that officers will instead continue to write warnings for most violations at unmarked illegal spaces, and save the citations for those who park in spots where curbs are painted red.

However, the city also said officers may ticket “repeat offenders” who park in unmarked daylighting zones — though officials did not say how many violations someone could rack up before risking a ticket. Berkeley police will make that determination, the city said.

The 2023 law aims to improve street safety by making it easier to see pedestrians, since parking right up against a crosswalk blocks the view drivers have of people entering or approaching intersections.

The 20-foot prohibition is a few feet longer than a typical sedan; at intersections with sidewalk “bulb-outs,” the restricted area shrinks to 15 feet. The law applies at all intersections, including those without painted crosswalks, as well as mid-block crosswalks. Cities were allowed to start writing tickets for violations on Jan. 1.

A graphic prepared by the City of Pinole and distributed by the City of Berkeley shows what parking spaces are off-limits under the state’s new “daylighting” law. Credit: City of Pinole

Public officials throughout California have expressed concern that the law, which applies regardless of whether cities have marked the zones where parking is prohibited, could lead to people who aren’t aware of the change getting tickets for parking in what appear to be legal spots.

In Berkeley, the Public Works Department has estimated there are about 1,700 sections of curb where newly off-limits spaces are not yet marked with red curbs or other signs. Adding to the confusion, the city has in a few places installed parking meters or marked loading zones at curb space that is now off-limits.

Instead of writing tickets, city spokesman Matthai Chakko said officials are encouraging drivers to comply with the law voluntarily.

“The most important thing is not about citations and tickets, but safety,” Chakko wrote in an email. “Avoiding parking within daylighting zones helps fellow motorists to uphold one of their principle responsibilities: yielding to pedestrians at a sidewalk. It improves their own line of vision as well as that of fellow drivers.”

Another city spokesman, Seung Lee, said Berkeley police, City Manager Paul Buddenhagen and the Public Works Department changed the enforcement strategy “to reduce confusion, encourage compliance, and stay consistent in enforcement with other nearby cities.” San Francisco similarly backed off of a plan to ticket drivers who violated the law at unmarked spaces, amid concern from transportation officials, supervisors and new Mayor Daniel Lurie that doing so would be “too punitive,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Berkeley officials previously said officers wrote 234 warnings for violations of the law during the first nine days of the year; Chakko said last week that an update was not available.

Councilmember Cecilia Lunaparra has put forward a request for $1.25 million in city funding to begin what could be years of work to mark all of the curbs where the law prohibits parking. That request will be considered later this year when the council makes updates to Berkeley’s biennial budget.