The curbs will help with enforcement of a newer pedestrian safety-related law, prohibiting parking within 20 feet of an intersection.

Nine months after enforcement began on a statewide law improving pedestrian safety, the city of San Diego is planning to slowly add more red curbs in La Jolla and elsewhere.

California’s “daylighting” law prohibits parking within 20 feet approaching any intersection, marked crosswalk or not, or 15 feet of any crosswalk where a curb extension is present.

Called “daylighting” for allowing better visibility for drivers so they can see pedestrians and others entering the roadway, the law went into effect in fall 2023 but enforcement began Jan 1.

Citations are applicable even if there is no signage or red curb in the area explaining where parking is prohibited, though San Diego has been painting red curbs to indicate the 20-foot buffer zone.

La Jolla is one of the city neighborhoods experiencing more daylighting tickets than other areas, due to the lack of red curbs, according to Fatima Maciel, community representative for San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria.

However, “infrastructure to put those red curbs in has not [previously] existed,” Maciel said at the La Jolla Village Merchants Association meeting Oct 8. 

The city’s Transportation Department is attempting to implement those red curbs where they are lacking, she said, and “eventually these areas will get red curbs.”

The department is experiencing a backlog of projects, Maciel added, including street lights, roadwork and sidewalks, but “red curbing right now is something that they’re trying to prioritize as well.”

“Unfortunately, given the budget constraints that we’re at, they cannot fulfill the requirements,” she said, noting the Transportation Department is looking to the Engineering & Capital Projects Department to help.