By John Ferrannini

The City is delaying plans to ticket drivers who park within 20 feet approaching a crosswalk, according to the City’s new transit agency head.

Julie Kirschbaum was named permanent director of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) on Feb. 18 after a few weeks as interim head following the departure of Jeffrey Tumlin.

“Our highest priority is keeping people safe – not issuing citations,” Kirschbaum said.

“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,” she said. “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. I’m thankful to Supervisors (Connie) Chan and (Shamann) Walton for urging us to find a solution that is both swift and fair.”

A new state law that went into effect Jan. 1 states people cannot park within 20 feet of the “approaching” side of a crosswalk, citing the concern that cars being there obstruct drivers’ views of oncoming pedestrians. The law does not say the zones have to be marked.

A $40 fine was proposed by SFMTA because many of these zones aren’t marked – and the agency wasn’t planning on doing so for four or five years. As of Feb. 19, however, the agency said it has been able to speed up that timeline.

“Within the next 18 months, every required curb will be painted, ensuring clarity for drivers and improved safety for people walking,” SFMTA spokesperson Michael Roccaforte said. “We were able to speed this process up by reorganizing staff resources to create an agile, dedicated daylighting-focused team to speed implementation. By focusing solely on daylighting, this team can implement more quickly and efficiently.”

The total cost of the painting program is expected to be $3.6 million, Roccaforte said, of which $1.1 million has already been provided by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority for painting the zones by schools, which is where the SFMTA is planning to start.

“We are exploring funding options for the remaining $2.5 million,” the Roccaforte stated. “We have developed multiple implementation scenarios to ensure citywide daylighting is completed within 18 months.”

Westside supervisors were pleased with the agency’s move. District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio is in favor of the daylighting curb-painting requirement.

“While daylighting saves pedestrian lives and gives drivers more visibility and peace of mind at intersections, it’s important that the daylighting area is clearly marked as a red zone,” Engardio said.

“People need to know where to park and it is unfair to ticket parked cars before the red zones are painted,” Engardio continued. “I’m glad SFMTA listened to residents who asked for a common-sense application of the new state law.”

Kirschbaum specifically thanked District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar, who is the chair of the transportation authority.

“If we are going to enforce the rules, it is only fair that we make the rules clear,” Melgar said. “I am relieved that the SFMTA has reevaluated their approach to daylighting and will now only issue tickets when the violation is clear. It will continue to be my top priority to ensure we can add red paint to our most dangerous intersections and school zones where visibility is most important.”

District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan agreed that until the prohibition is clear to drivers, there should not be penalties.

“I look forward to seeing the implementation of the daylighting safety measure, but until the curbs are marked, I appreciate this balanced approach of advancing pedestrian safety while fairly implementing enforcement,” she stated.

SFMTA is issuing warnings to people who park in the zones to let them know of the future changes. Claire Amable, director of advocacy for the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, is happy about that.

“In the absence of red curbs, the SFMTA must continue to issue warnings for these daylighting violations to help set expectations across the whole City,” Amable said. “We understand that issuing fines when the curbs are inconsistently painted creates confusion, but daylighting is now state law. In order for it to be effective in making intersections safer and saving lives, San Francisco will need to start enforcing it consistently as they paint the curbs.

“Daylighting is a proven strategy that makes intersections safer for vulnerable road users, and we’re glad to see that SFMTA has shifted up the timeline to paint every daylit segment of the intersection red so that San Franciscans clearly understand the law.”