In an effort to increase pedestrian safety, the city of Berkeley completed painting red curbs at 1,680 intersections. A ceremony was held for the painting of the final curb of West Street and Addison Street last Thursday.
The method, called “daylighting,” prohibits cars from parking within 20 feet of a crosswalk to promote pedestrian and cyclist safety.
“The event today is to celebrate the city’s painting of nearly 1700 red curbs to comply with the state daylighting law, which we’re celebrating because people will be safer all over the city, whether they’re walking or biking or rolling or driving,” said city manager Paul Buddenhagen.
In Berkeley, more than 80% of severe and fatal traffic collisions involving pedestrians occur in or near crosswalks, according to a city document citing data from 2022.
The implementation of daylighting in Berkeley was prompted, partially, by a California parking law, approved in 2023, which also prohibited parking within 15 feet of any crosswalk with a curb extension.
Daylighting was shown to reduce traffic collisions by 14% at intersections in San Francisco where it was implemented, according to data presented in the California Assembly Floor Analysis of AB 413 in 2023.
The Berkeley City Council wrote a budget referral to allocate funds to the city’s Public Works Department for the daylighting project in early 2025, according to District 7 Councilmember Cecilia Lunaparra. The state mandate provided no funding, according to a city document.
“(Berkeley) managed to paint all of this in 15-16 months,” said Berkeley city spokesperson Seung Lee. “That means that the city of Berkeley is one of the first cities of its size in California to finish this effort.”
The daylighting project is mainly funded by Measure FF — a parcel tax for sidewalk and street repairs, passed by Berkeley voters in 2024 — as well as the UC Berkeley Long Range Development Plan settlement and Berkeley Street and Open Space Improvement Plan.
However, some curb painting efforts began prior to funding approvals, according to Deputy Director of Public Works Wahid Amiri.
“We have very hardworking men, women, and colleagues within (City of Berkeley) Public Works who actually initiated this — working after hours, overtime on the weekend — until it gave us an opportunity,” Amiri said.
Daylighting work was carried out by the Public Works Traffic Maintenance teamand the city’s on-call traffic maintenance contractor, Chrisp Company, according to Lee and a 2025 City Council report.
Violators who park in red-curb daylighting zones will receive a $64 ticket, which increases to $96 on Cal Football gamedays, Lee noted.