San Jose to implement new Daylighting road safety improvements in phases

The new law will require vehicles to park at least 20 feet away from the approaching side of all crosswalks.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - A new law aiming to make roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists is now being implemented across the state. In San Jose, city officials say they are taking steps to make adjustments to thousands of streets in phases.

City officials say they know it won't be simple to implement or enforce this new law, but it may help them reach their Zero Vision goal where no one loses their lives while walking.

"Actually, it makes sense. It is nice to be able to see around the corners because before, some of the cars were parked right at the corners," said Alex Abadia, of San Jose.

San Jose resident Alex Abadia says he supports the goals of Assembly Bill 413 or the Daylighting Bill. The new law will require vehicles to park at least 20 feet away from the approaching side of all crosswalks, or 15 feet away from crosswalks with a curb extension.

"The area right in front of our store is mostly a loading zone and two-hour parking and I think it’s quite a distance from the crosswalk already. So, I don’t really see it impacting our store too much at all," said Catherine Le, from the Classic Loot Store in Japantown.

To enforce the law, some corner parking spaces will be eliminated on each street, which should make it easier for drivers to see people walking across the road. In 2022, 32 pedestrians were hit and killed in San Jose, the highest number of pedestrian fatalities in city history. San Jose transportation officials say with thousands of streets to adjust, they’re working in phases to implement the law.

"We had areas downtown where we had parking meters that actually fell within that 20-foot limit. So, we’ve removed those parking meters," said Colin Heyne, San Jose Dept. of Transportation Spokesperson.

Heyne says San Jose has already painted some curbs red and will remove some blue accessibility spaces. Because the law is new, the city of San Jose has not implemented a fine yet and wants to educate people first.

"The hope is that this law will be similar to the restriction on parking within 15 feet of a fire hydrant. The idea is that if you’re a driver and you’ve been trained, you’ve taken the driver’s test, you know that law. So, we don’t need to paint red in front of every single fire hydrant," said Heyne.

The City of Santa Clara also says it’ll use this month as an educational period and Sunnyvale has already made plans to issue $53 tickets for breaking the law starting this week.

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