Berkeley just eliminated thousands of parking spaces. This is why.

A worker in a yellow safety vest sprays red paint onto a curb while a crowd of people looks on, many of them taking photos on cellphones Berkeley worker Jaime Montoya paints a section of curb red at a ceremony Thursday to celebrate Berkeley finishing implementation of a new state law that prohibits parking next to crosswalks. Credit: Nico Savidge/Berkeleyside

City worker Jaime Montoya pulled a hose from the back of a Berkeley Public Works Department truck Thursday afternoon and pointed it at a section of curb along West Street across from Strawberry Creek Park. With city leaders and fellow public works employees cheering and snapping photos, Montoya sprayed a shiny coat of red paint onto the curb, covering a 20-foot stretch before it reached a crosswalk at Addison Street.

This was the golden-spike moment marking the completion of a street safety project that has been unfolding across Berkeley for more than a year.

Crews have been painting thousands of sections of curb red to prohibit parking directly next to intersections, where stopped cars can make it harder for approaching drivers to see pedestrians, cyclists and other motorists. The vast majority of serious and fatal traffic collisions in Berkeley happen at intersections, so officials hope that by improving sightlines they can drive down the number of crashes.

Berkeley is one of the cities in California to make change

A 2023 state law prohibited drivers from parking within the 20 feet of curb space approaching an intersection, a practice known in traffic safety circles as “daylighting” the corners.

But the law didn’t come with any funding to mark those spaces off-limits, leaving it up to cities and other local governments to pay for the work out of their own budgets. As a result, many haven’t — Oakland officials said last fall that they don’t have the staff or funding to implement the law, with just two employees responsible for street-painting work throughout the city.

Berkeley has become one of the first cities in California to finish painting its curbs to comply with the law, City Manager Paul Buddenhagen wrote in a memo this week, after public works staff and a contractor applied the treatment at nearly 1,700 intersections.

“I’m super proud of the city today,” Mayor Adena Ishii said at the event on West Street celebrating the end of the project. “I can’t believe you all did it so fast, I thought for sure this was something that was going to take years.”

Curb painting was partly funded by Measure FF

Berkeley spent $1.6 million to contract with the firm Chrisp Company to bolster the work of its five-person street-painting staff. Funding for the contract came from Measure FF, the parcel tax voters approved in 2024 to fund street paving and safety projects; the city’s 2021 settlement agreement with UC Berkeley for the university’s use of city services; and a mix of city and regional money that funds Berkeley’s Street and Open Space Improvement Plan.

Cities have been allowed to write tickets for violations of the daylighting zone since last year, even if the space wasn’t marked with a red curb. That led to fears that drivers unaware of the new law might park in a legal-seeming space, then be surprised to find their cars ticketed. Berkeley officials, like those in other cities, said drivers in those cases would generally get warnings, and tickets would be saved for those who parked in areas with marked red curbs.

Now that the city’s daylighting zones are all painted red, parking enforcement officers have the green light to ticket anyone who leaves their car in one.

Berkeley just eliminated thousands of parking spaces. This is why.

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