Several Fremont City Council members and school board members met on Jan. 27 to continue their discussion on painting street curbs red. This is all part of complying to the “Daylighting” state law that prohibits any driver from parking, stopping or even getting out of the car temporarily within 20 feet of a crosswalk.
Fremont Public Works director Hans Larsen said painting school curbs red will require a lot of time and resources. Larsen said red curbs are not enforceable, and recommended putting up signs instead.
Fremont City Councilmember Kathy Kimberlin said she supports painting curbs red. “I’d rather see us be proactive with a couple of sites and try it out, see how it goes and move, versus just not moving,” she said. “Enforcement is not the goal, safety is the goal.”
A Brier Elementary cross guard also said complying to the “Daylighting” law is about safety, not about getting people in trouble. “I can’t see approaching traffic, and approaching traffic can’t see the kids who are standing on the corner, because the cars are in the way,” she said.
Larsen said he encourages volunteers to work with schools on being more safe. “We definitely encourage the school communities to volunteer, and there’s a lot of great examples of how school communities put out traffic cones and supplemental signs,” he said.
Larsen said there was a person from a homeowner’s association who wanted a no-parking area near their home. “They are taking it upon themselves to say, ‘Hey, I’m gonna paint the curb red.’ We’re not permitting it, we’re not advising it, but we’re not enforcing against it, if it’s done in a legal way.”
FUSD board member Vivek Prasad said they have been discussing this issue of enforcement through red paint for the last several meetings. The last time they spoke about it he said he thought they were told to not paint it, and the conversation is coming full circle.
Councilmember Raymond Liu also said they should be proactive. “The issue is the physical red paint, there’s no exact enforcement, what’s stopping me tomorrow from painting those areas red? We could use that as a good trial run.”
Fremont city staff said they plan to speak to the city manager about a request from the council and school board for a pilot program to paint curbs on and near schools red. The city will also have discussions with the school district about existing resources such as school volunteers.
I feel that the public works and city engineer Hans are a bit backward in their argument. Hans has pushed the Vision Zero plan since 2015 which was supposed to reduce traffic accidents and fatalities to Zero by 2025 …it didn’t happen. It’s 2026 and we already have 3 traffic fatalities and its only February.
Red curbs/red zones are in the California drivers handbook, (California Code, Vehicle Code – VEH § 21458), as places that you cannot park. The painting of Red curbs has been widely acceptable as Red indicates no stopping, standing, or parking, whether the vehicle is attended or unattended, except that a bus may stop in a red zone marked or signposted as a bus loading zone.
So you would think that Hans would be all for following state law in painting the curbs red instead of trying to stonewall the requirement.
People ignore the red curbs and they know there is no enforcement. Who knew when they built these schools there would be a need for adequate passenger loading zones off the streets? The City hasn’t painted curbs for years and the traffic congestion at the beginning and ending of school days is horrible. I live less than a mile from my elderly parent and had to call 911 twice because 1) my parent needed emergency care, and 2) the fire department could get there faster than me because I was stuck in WHS school traffic. It was an awful feeling to know a parent is in distress and I cannot get there because of such a compounded problem of no enforcement and no place to park for parents. It’s disaster waiting to happen.