A plan to begin issuing $40 tickets for parking along unmarked curbs due to a crosswalk "daylighting" law has been nixed, with the SFMTA acknowledging that it might be unfair to force drivers to pull out their own tape measures.
A controversial new law that took effect last year, requiring people parking in San Francisco to stay 20 feet away from a crosswalk — in order to allow drivers on the street to better see people entering a crosswalk, i.e. "daylighting" the pedestrian — regardless of whether that section of curb was painted red, is going to remain without penalties.
The SFMTA was planning to begin issuing parking tickets on March 1, dinging drivers $40 if they park in an unmarked daylighting zone, and $108 if they park in a red-painted one. The $40 tickets were a compromise after pushback from the public, and after the agency admitted they didn't have the budget to paint all the curbs red that they need to. And the agency had initially planned to begin issuing them on January 1, with citations starting to go out back in November, but they pushed the ticketing launch to March 1 so they could do more public outreach.
Then there was also the embarrassing issue of vigilante curb painters going around and supplementing the the SFMTA's work last month — but doing it incorrectly and making the daylighting zones too large. And yet, parking enforcement officers still issued at least two tickets for parking in these fraudulently painted zones.
Acting Director of Transportation Julie Kirschbaum put out an announcement Monday saying that only warnings will continue to be issued for cars parked alongside unmarked curbs, as the SFMTA continues its process of painting more curbs red in those 20-foot zones.
"Our highest priority is keeping people safe — not issuing citations," Kirschbaum said in a statement. "Since I became the Acting Director of Transportation at the SFMTA, I have made it a priority to listen to community members, and I have heard repeated concerns about how we planned to implement the state’s daylighting law. Daylighting is an incredibly important tool for street safety, but I want to make sure when we roll it out citywide, we do it fairly."
Kirschbaum added that Supervisors Connie Chan and Shamann Walton both pushed the agency not to start fining drivers for parking along unmarked curbs.
"We appreciate the balanced approach of advancing pedestrian safety and fairly implementing enforcement," Chan said in a statement.
The Chronicle also suggests that new Mayor Daniel Lurie also played a role in getting the fines nixed.
The SFMTA is continuing to paint more curbs, adding more areas in town where the daylighting law will be enforced — and where people should be avoiding the red curbs. Still, the process of completing this project is expected to take several years.
As the agency notes in their release, studies have shown that by creating these daylighting zones at crosswalks, pedestrian collisions are reduced by 30%.
