The City of Martinez announced it was restricting parking in an effort to comply with California State Law AB 413.
The city says red bags are being put on select parking meters in Martinez, to restrict parking within 20 feet of the approaching side of any marked or unmarked crosswalk, regardless of curb markings. This is required by California State law AB 413, otherwise known as the Daylighting Law, and improves pedestrian safety by adding visibility for both drivers and pedestrians at crosswalks and intersections.
According to the city, You can scan the QR code on the back of the bags for more information, or visit www.cityofmartinez.org/daylighting .
Under this new State law:
NO PARKING before a crosswalk:
- On one-way streets, there is NO PARKING on both sides of the street immediately before the crosswalk.
- On two-way streets, there is NO PARKING before the crosswalk as you approach it.
- The “No Parking” buffer is 20 feet before the crosswalk (about one regular parking space size).
- This applies to every intersection, even if the crosswalk is unmarked (all intersection corners are considered crosswalks).
- This applies to every crosswalk/intersection, even if the curb is not painted red or if there is no other sign restricting parking.
- Parking is allowed after you pass a crosswalk so long as there are no other markings or signs restricting parking.

Brentwood Could Look at “Opting Out” of New Daylighting Law
On Tuesday, Brentwood City Councilmember Jovita Mendoza requested a future report on the new “daylighting” law and how to opt out of it.
AB 413 was introduced by Assemblyman Alex Lee (D-San Jose) last February which aimed to increase visibility of pedestrians and bicyclist for drivers at crosswalks and intersections. Under the law, it prohibits vehicles from being stopped, left or parked within 20 feet of a marked crosswalk or intersection.
The daylighting law went into effect January 1, 2025 and many cities are now wrestling with the impact from reduced available parking across a city to police departments providing grace periods or issuing “warnings” while others have started issuing fines. Other cities will simply begin paining curbs red and have a phased approach such as Davis.
On Tuesday, Brentwood took the first step in a future agenda request to simply “opt out” of the law altogether.
“There is a new law in California where you can’t park within 20-ft of a crosswalk, but you can choose as a city not to enforce that if you don’t want to,” stated Mendoza. “So, I want that to come back to us.” — see full story