As San Francisco’s transportation agency continues to paint curbs red within 20 feet of the approach side of crosswalks as part of a state law to improve the visibility of pedestrians, one district in the city is seeking to be the first to complete the task.
District 5, represented by Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, seeks to have all of its curbs daylighted by March 2026, as stated in documents from the San Francisco County Transportation Authority. Neighborhoods in the district include the Tenderloin, Japantown, and Hayes Valley.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) is prioritizing painting curbs red near schools and corridors on the city’s high-injury network, which are the known corridors where most fatal and severe traffic crashes occur in the city.
The transportation authority’s board on Tuesday approved the allocation of $117,000 from the district’s Neighborhood Transportation Planning fund, which sources funding from local sales tax revenue. The funding will cover painting curbs red at all other intersections that are not near school zones or on the high-injury network.
SFMTA is prioritizing painting curbs red near schools and corridors on the city’s high-injury network.
“SFMTA has taken the approach of painting all these intersections over the course of the next several years, but only enforcing at painted intersections,” Mahmood said at the meeting. “Speeding up the installation of paint gives clarity to drivers on where they can or cannot allow for better visibility at all the intersections in the district, and not just the ones at schools or currently on the high-injury corridor.”
The state’s “daylighting law” (Assembly Bill 143) took effect on Jan. 1, with some confusion over the law as the SFMTA began enforcement earlier this year. Last November, the SFMTA said it would begin enforcement of the law by first handing out warning citations and then begin handing out $40 fines on Jan. 1, even if curbs were not yet painted red.
In February, the agency’s Director of Transportation Julie Kirschbaum announced a change in enforcement in that parking control officers would not issue fines at curbs not painted red yet and instead would continue issuing warnings.
More street safety improvements could soon be coming to the district. Mahmood’s office is currently conducting a survey on how the rest of the Neighborhood Transportation Planning funding should be spent to improve street safety for all road users.
“One of the things we’re interested in adding is painted safety zones to complement the daylight intersections to better prevent illegal parking, and we’re looking forward to creative ways to do that as well,” Mahmood said.
The deadline to complete the survey is May 30.