Project Summary
California’s Assembly Bill (AB) 413, the “Daylighting” law, took effect on January 1, 2025, prohibiting parking within 20 feet of any marked or unmarked crosswalk in order to improve sightlines between pedestrians and drivers approaching intersections. While daylighting has been credited with dramatic safety gains in cities such as Hoboken, NJ, recent evidence from the New York City Department of Transportation suggests that daylighting without physical infrastructure may not deliver the expected benefits. To date, the research team were unable to find substantive analysis on the effectiveness of daylighting in California. This study will provide the first quantitative evaluation of AB 413 in California using video-based near-miss data from Quality Counts, a transportation data firm whose DataLens platform automates near-miss event detection from intersection video. The research address two complementary questions: (1) Has AB 413 reduced near-miss conflicts at intersections in Berkeley and Oakland, comparing 2026 conditions to 2021–2023 baselines at the same locations? (2) Within unpainted intersections still subject to the law, do near-miss conflicts increase when a vehicle illegally occupies the daylighting zone, compared to the same location when the zone is clear? Findings will inform statewide AB 413 implementation, the ongoing debate over hardened versus signage-based daylighting, and Vision Zero strategies in California.
