Just because cars can’t be parked in the new state-required buffer zone within 20 feet of an intersection doesn’t necessarily mean that space will go unused. In some places in San Diego, it’s being used for bicycle and scooter parking.
Other spots for such “corrals” already exist downtown as well as in Pacific Beach, Point Loma, the College Area and La Jolla, which is home to about 40 of them. The locations can be found at sandiego.gov/bicycling/racks-and-lockers under “shared mobility device corrals.”
Determinations on whether bicycle, scooter or motorcycle parking can be installed in the buffer zones are being made during ongoing intersection evaluations, according to city spokesman Anthony Santacroce. Those evaluations haven’t yet reached La Jolla, and no specific time frame is available.
As of now, Santacroce said, no additional locations in La Jolla are set to receive corrals. Instead, any additions largely will be done on a case-to-case basis “if the surrounding area permits it” and no sightlines are blocked, he said.
The number of local corrals was agreed on by the city and the La Jolla Community Planning Association in 2019. A master list of 150 locations in La Jolla was sent to the City Council initially, but the number was reduced to 81 and then 40.
The corrals came with conditions — that they be out of residential areas, stay a certain distance from schools and be geofenced so riders would continue to be charged for use unless they parked in a corral.
The state law, Assembly Bill 413, was ed in 2023 and took effect Jan. 1 this year, though motorists initially were given a 60-day grace period to adapt. As of March 1, however, a violation can result in a fine.
The required buffer zone, called “daylighting,” prohibits curb parking within 20 feet of a marked or unmarked crosswalk or within 15 feet of a crosswalk with a curb extension. By blocking parking close to crosswalks and intersections, the law is intended to enhance motorists’ vision of approaching pedestrians and vehicles, state officials say. Forty other states have similar laws.
About 500 people in San Diego had already been ticketed for violating the daylighting law as of March 6, just five days after enforcement began, according to Laird Tucker, senior parking enforcement officer for the city.
During the 60-day grace period between Jan. 1 and March 1, the city handed out 1,500 warnings to people who violated the law.
Violators now have to cough up $77.50 — $65 for the ticket and $12.50 in istrative fees.
However, not every violation will result in a fine.
“Any time a citizen actually comes out and makes with us, we’re giving them the option to just move the car instead of receiving a citation,” Tucker said.
There is no deadline for when that will cease, but Tucker said parking authorities feel it’s the appropriate way to handle it right now.
“The more people we can reach out to, the less citations we have to issue,” Tucker said.
Limitations
The city lacks the resources to monitor every intersection, Tucker said. Enforcement of the daylighting law was not accompanied by reshuffling of city staff or addition of parking officers.
“I don’t have the staffing to have everybody just go out there and only focus on this one violation,” Tucker said. “If we did, there would be a lot more than 500 [citations]. But right now, we’re just kind of seeing what we normally see as we’re doing our normal work duties.”
The law prohibits parking near marked and unmarked crosswalks and whether or not there is a red curb or no-parking signs. However, starting last year, the city evaluated more than 1,000 intersections and identified 200 of the “most dense, busy” spots to paint red curbs, Santacroce said.
None of them are in La Jolla. Most are in areas such as downtown and uptown San Diego, East Village and the Gaslamp Quarter, Santacroce said.
Going forward, the city plans to paint more red curbs during construction projects, and it will now be included as part of a checklist for capital improvements.
“It’s not possible to install red curbs on every single intersection immediately,” Santacroce said. “It’s going to take lots and lots of time. So we’re doing all we can to prioritize the busiest and densest ones [first].”
La Jolla Shores resident Mike McCormack, a member of the La Jolla Traffic & Transportation Board and the La Jolla Shores Association, described the daylighting law as “a great start” toward enhancing pedestrian safety.
However, he said he hasn’t seen much enforcement of it where he lives.
“For the most part, I would say the city has not been very active in La Jolla Shores,” McCormack said. “I think they … tend to focus on different areas.”
Though nobody wants to have to pay a ticket and many people may be frustrated with the law, enforcement is part of building awareness and ensuring pedestrian safety, he said.
“Anything to make it more safe for pedestrians is good,” McCormack said.
How much is 20 feet anyway?
City officials encourage motorists at unmarked intersections to measure the allowable distance in of vehicle size. The average length of a car in the United States is 14 feet, making 20 feet roughly equivalent to 1½ vehicles.
But Tucker previously told the La Jolla Light that while a violation is a violation, identifying cars that are only 18 or 19 feet from an intersection is hard even for an officer.
“Obvious ones, yes, we will get out and cite,” Tucker said. “But those fringe and borderline ones will probably be a complaint basis only, because we don’t have the staffing to go out and measure every single intersection all day long.”
Aiming for zero
Though AB 413 is a statewide policy, San Diego officials believe it will aid their “Vision Zero” campaign that was launched in 2015 to try to reduce traffic-related fatalities to zero within a decade.
City officials acknowledge they won’t meet that goal. The number of annual crashes with severe injuries has been mostly flat since San Diego launched Vision Zero, hovering around 150, with a high of 184 in 2018 and a low of 113 during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Deaths, however, actually rose from 46 in 2014 to 67 in 2021 to 69 in 2022 and 70 in 2023.
Officials told the City Council’s infrastructure committee in October that the answers are more comprehensive efforts and more money — $186 million over the next five years.
Vision Zero has received an average of $26.7 million per year since its launch. That has paid for 56 miles of protected bicycle paths, 16 roundabouts, 102 flashing beacons, 12 guardrails, 125,000 linear feet of new sidewalks and a variety of new traffic signals.
City officials plan more roundabouts, countdown timers, widened crosswalks and more to try to reduce fatalities. How much can be accomplished with the city projecting a $258 million budget deficit for next fiscal year remains to be seen.
— San Diego Union-Tribune staff writer David Garrick contributed to this report. ♦
