California’s Daylighting Law and Why You Should Be Aware of It

Parking enforcement officers in unincorporated Los Angeles County have started citing drivers who park too close to crosswalks, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced this week, as the state’s “daylighting” law moves from a little-discussed statute into daily enforcement.

The Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday that parking enforcement officers have begun enforcing the daylighting law in county-patrolled areas, along with a separate ordinance restricting where oversized and nonconforming vehicles may park. Motorists caught violating either rule face a $63 fine, and owners of vehicles towed under the nonconforming vehicle ordinance are responsible for removal and storage costs.

The daylighting law, formally known as Assembly Bill 413, prohibits parking, stopping or standing a vehicle within 20 feet of the approach side of any marked or unmarked crosswalk, or within 15 feet where a curb extension is present. Neither red curb paint nor posted signage is required for the restriction to apply. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill in October 2023, and it is codified as California Vehicle Code Section 22500(n). Jurisdictions were limited to issuing warnings before Jan. 1, 2025, when full citation authority took effect.

The nonconforming vehicle ordinance, which restricts certain oversized vehicles to designated parking areas in unincorporated parts of the county, took effect March 3, 2026, and includes a towing provision. The Sheriff’s Department said it encourages motorists to review both sets of rules before leaving their vehicles.

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Sightlines at Crosswalks Have Become a State Priority

Lawmakers built the daylighting requirement around a straightforward visibility problem: a vehicle parked directly next to a crosswalk blocks the sightline both drivers and pedestrians need to see each other before a pedestrian steps into the street. The California Office of Traffic Safety logs a statewide pedestrian fatality rate that runs about 25% above the national figure, and no other state records more pedestrian deaths on its roads. Statewide pedestrian fatalities fell roughly 8.8% — from 1,213 deaths in 2022 to 1,106 in 2023, according to state figures — though the totals remain high enough that lawmakers have continued pushing engineering and enforcement fixes.

AB 413 was built as one of those fixes. Clearing the 20 feet closest to a crosswalk gives drivers a view of pedestrians preparing to cross and gives pedestrians a view of oncoming traffic, without either party stepping around a parked car to check. Cities across the state, including Pasadena, have spent the past year and a half repainting curbs and running public education campaigns to explain a rule that applies whether or not a curb has been marked.

Civil Liability California Drivers and Property Owners

A parking citation does not automatically establish civil liability, but the two can intersect when an obstructed crosswalk contributes to a pedestrian collision. California Civil Code Section 1714 establishes a general duty to exercise reasonable care to avoid injuring others, and a driver who parks in violation of Vehicle Code Section 22500(n) may face a negligence claim built on that statutory violation.

California also recognizes negligence per se under Evidence Code Section 669, which allows a jury to presume negligence when a defendant violated a statute, the violation caused the injury, the injury resulted from the kind of occurrence the statute was designed to prevent, and the injured party belonged to the class the statute was meant to protect. A pedestrian struck at a crosswalk where a parked vehicle blocked sightlines fits that framework directly, since the daylighting law exists specifically to protect people crossing the street from that kind of collision.

Liability in a given case still depends on the full set of facts, including vehicle speed, pedestrian right-of-way and whether the parked vehicle actually obstructed the driver’s or pedestrian’s view. A citation alone does not establish that a parking violation caused a collision, but it can serve as evidence supporting a broader negligence claim against a driver or, in cases involving a government entity’s road design or maintenance failures, a public agency.

What Injured Pedestrians in California Should Know

California law gives injured pedestrians two years from the date of a collision to file a personal injury lawsuit under Code of Civil Procedure Section 335.1. Claims against a government entity, such as a county or city responsible for signage or road design, require a formal claim within six months under the Government Claims Act, well before that two-year window closes. Missing either deadline can end a claim regardless of its merit.

J&Y Law represents injured pedestrians and their families across Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley and California on a contingency-fee basis, meaning clients pay nothing unless the firm recovers compensation. Anyone struck by a vehicle near a crosswalk, particularly one obstructed by improperly parked cars, should speak with an attorney promptly to preserve evidence and meet applicable deadlines.