Last month, the City Council passed Intro 103, a bill that requires the city Department of Transportation to notify lawmakers every time a single parking space is repurposed for car-share parking, a bicycle corral or a dock for Citi Bike. This new law creates an administrative burden that, according to DOT, will slow the implementation of key agency programs. To address these challenges and streamline implementation in general, DOT should support Intro 1138 to make universal daylighting the law in New York City. Intro 1138 will bolster DOT’s street safety progress, cut through the red tape of Intro 103 and make it easier for the agency to advance its programs.
Under Intro 1138, all curb space within 20 feet of a crosswalk would no longer be considered legal parking — a practice known as daylighting. As a result, DOT would not need to notify council members every time this space is allocated for things besides auto storage. This removes much of the administrative hurdle created by Intro 103. Such a change will prevent delays on countless projects where DOT would otherwise be required to jump through additional bureaucratic hoops. By streamlining these processes, Intro 1138 ensures smoother implementation of programs adversely affected by Intro 103 — an outcome DOT should support.
Eliminating parking spaces on paper makes it easier to build out safety infrastructure and reduces opposition to streets projects — another outcome DOT should welcome. Hoboken, New Jersey, famously has not seen a traffic fatality in eight years as of January 2025 and attributes a lot of this success to universal daylighting. The secret to this success specifically lies in the operational benefits universal daylighting provides. Curbspace is much easier to repurpose for safety interventions and other uses when it is not already parking.
Former Hoboken Transportation and Parking Director Ryan Sharp acknowledges this frequently, saying that universal daylighting is what made it possible for Hoboken to implement hardened daylighting at many intersections quickly. “That’s the thing. It’s not technically a parking spot,” Sharp said in 2022 in response to questions about universal daylighting and opposition to losing parking spaces. He added that universal daylighting creates “low-hanging fruit” for implementing safety projects. By backing Intro 1138, DOT can make that low-hanging fruit available for their own work.
DOTs in cities around the country see similar benefits from universal daylighting. In 2023, California passed a state law that mandates universal daylighting. City agencies in California, most notably SFMTA, strongly supported the law. In a 2024 blog post, SFMTA wrote, “The SFMTA has been a strong proponent of daylighting to increase pedestrian safety. Keeping the area next to crosswalks clear of parked vehicles allows pedestrians, drivers, bicyclists and anyone else rolling down the street to see each other more clearly.” SFMTA even has an entire webpage dedicated to daylighting — where it is noted that universal daylighting is the law in 43 other states and in the U.S. Uniform Vehicle Code. The benefits of universal daylighting are broadly acknowledged by city agencies across the U.S., reflected in local laws requiring it. DOT should follow suit and back this policy which supports their own work.
Despite that, DOT has refused to support universal daylighting. During a 2023 City Council hearing, DOT Commissioner Rodriguez defended the city’s decision to opt out of state law that requires daylighting, saying that daylighting is, “not the right solution everywhere,” and that in some instances, a parked car at an intersection prevents a driver from cutting the corner and making a faster turn. But there isn’t data to support that. The only evidence DOT used to make this assertion is a more than 10-year-old study on left turn crashes that Streetsblog obtained via a FOIL request last year. This study is very limited, looking at only one type of crash on a specific set of intersections. It is not sufficient to prove universal daylighting is a net negative. On the contrary, an SFMTA study on daylighting without physical barriers showed daylighting reduced all crashes by 14 percent. The Federal Highway Administration goes further, claiming daylighting can reduce all crashes at intersections by up to 30 percent. This data should have DOT eager to support Intro 1138 and claim the safety win universal daylighting would provide.
To be fair to DOT, hardened barriers do play a crucial role in intersection safety — it’s obviously a lot harder for drivers to cut corners if hard barriers are installed. However, visibility alone still plays a part in preventing crashes and fostering safe interactions between road users, as SFMTA’s data shows. This is supported by other transportation and infrastructure authorities like the National Association of City Transportation Officials. NACTO’s Urban Street Design Guide emphasizes the importance of visibility and sightlines in keeping pedestrians safe, saying, “Intersection design should facilitate eye contact between street users [emphasis added], ensuring that motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians, and transit vehicles intuitively read intersections as shared spaces. Visibility can be achieved through a variety of design strategies, including intersection ‘daylighting.’” Asking pedestrians to step into the street without clear sightlines creates an inherently hazardous situation where they must gamble on the assumption that oncoming vehicles will yield. Increasing visibility eliminates this guesswork and gives pedestrians agency to enter the street when it actually appears to be safe.
DOT officials should examine the available info and consider how Intro 1138 would benefit their work and re-evaluate their stance on this issue. It makes sense that the agency has some reticence and reluctance — universal daylighting represents a considerable change. New York City is enormous, with around 40,000 intersections and millions of parking spaces. But universal daylighting also represents an incredible opportunity to make intersections safer city-wide, using an evidence-based approach.
The right position is clear — Intro 1138 will improve safety and make it easier to move agency projects forward. DOT should support it.
