Changes have been made in Morro Bay to comply with California's new "daylighting law." The law means big changes for parking near crosswalks.
Assembly Bill 413 prevents drivers from parking or stopping along a curb within 20 feet of a crosswalk. The change is intended to provide drivers better visibility of pedestrians entering crosswalks.
“You don’t have people popping out from behind a car, and you can actually see them if they are getting in a crosswalk, so it gives you time to stop,” said Mike Cook, Morro Bay resident.
The law has been in effect since January. Starting in May, the city began adding red paint to curbs where other work was already planned.
“We had an active repaving project contract in place when this law came about, so we were able to incorporate,” said Cindy Cecil, Morro Bay City Engineer.
But Cecil says making changes to curbs and pavement in other parts of the city will be more difficult.
“The other side of that is the streets that aren’t being repaved are going to take us longer and more money to gray out the existing t’s and reordering them,” Cecil said.
The Embarcadero and Main Street are among the areas where changes have already been made.
“The next would be Morro Bay Boulevard,” Cecil said.
Cecil says only a few parking spots were lost.
“In some cases, we had extra-long parking spots, so when we did the minimum, we could still have the same amount,” Cecil said.
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Morro Bay Police Chief Amy Watkins says for the time being, officers are issuing warnings to drivers parking in areas affected by the new law. Once changes have been made citywide or if a driver has already been warned, then $65 parking citations will be issued.
“You’d hate to give people a ticket when they are not really aware of it, so a little warning is good,” Cook said.
