By Miranda Ceja / Patch / Dec 24 — 26, 2024
Heads up, Golden State drivers: a handful of new laws come into effect starting Jan. 1, 2025 that will impact the way you drive your vehicle.
From insurance claims to car break-ins — to parking restrictions and license requirements, here’s the run-down on new driving laws impacting Californians for the New Year.
Locked Door Loophole Gets Squashed
This year, a loophole in California criminal code — which defined burglary to include “entering a vehicle when the doors are locked with the intent to commit grand or petit larceny or a felony.”
Senate Bill 905 squashes this loophole.
“The mere fact that a window was broken into is insufficient. Prosecutors must prove that the door was locked, which requires that victims must physically come out to court to testify as such,” Sen. Scott Wiener, author of the bill, told KTLA.
Once the law comes into effect, car owners and prosecutors won’t have to prove a car was locked, just that “forcible entry” took place.
“Daylighting Law” Comes Into Effect
Assembly Bill 413, alternatively known as a “Daylighting Law,” takes effect in the Golden State in 2025. The law bans drivers from parking within 20 feet of a crosswalk in order to make intersections safer for pedestrians.
Drivers must heed this law regardless of whether or not the crosswalk is marked or if the curb is painted red.
Advice? If you’re parking facing a crosswalk, look for a red curb first. If it’s there, respect that distance — but if not, leave a space of 20 feet between your parked car and that intersection.
Insurance Coverage
Senate Bill 1107 increases minimum insurance liability limits for when someone is injured or killed in a crash, or if that person suffers property damage.
Starting Jan. 1 2025, the payout limits increase to: $30,000 for bodily injury or death of one person, $60,000 for bodily injury of death of all persons, and $15,000 for damage to the property of others as a result of any one accident.
The bill will also increase the deposit to $75,000.
No License Needed
Come 2025, job postings can’t require that applicants have a valid driver’s license anymore — unless your potential employer believes you’ll actually need to drive as part of the job.
In addition, the employer would also need to reasonably believe that you couldn’t carry out the job’s duties using an alternate form of transportation.
Advocates of the law said that requiring a driver’s license for jobs that don’t involve driving is a form of employment discrimination.
The new law re: parking 20 feet from pedestrian crossings is convoluted, given pedestrians can legally jay walk. LOL leave it to the politicians to screw it up.
IF all people on the road just paid attention to what they were doing, pedestrians wouldn’t be getting hit so much. Look both ways before crossing is what the grade school teachers said just before the final bell for the day would ring. People have been walking, driving, riding, since time, but with lights, stop signs, pedestrian injuries and deaths are greater than cars, and riders. It really boils down to pay attention people. Have a safe, observant Happy New Year to all.
More pedestrians are hit by towering monster-sized trucks and SUVs. The drivers cannot see the front bumper of their vehicles.
When cars are more reasonably sized, the drivers cannot see the road and corner ahead.
Should read…when cars are more reasonably sized, the drivers CAN see….
Several extra feet of visibility may prevent you from hitting the middle school kid on their electric bike running the stop sign.
Generally I applaud attempts to make pedestrians safer, but does anyone else feel like the true intent of the “daylighting” law is to generate revenue? Tourists won’t realize they have to be 20+ feet from an intersection, since the city doesn’t seem to have any plans to paint the curbs red in the newly forbidden zones. Meanwhile, couple this with the massive ADUs going in with no on site parking…even if the YIMBY fantasy were true that those residents simply won’t own cars, what about their guests? The limited parking in crowded neighborhoods just got a LOT more limited, and tired people coming home late at night will gamble that parking enforcement hopefully won’t notice if they park 16, 18 feet from the intersection…. This will lead to a lot of tickets for people who can least afford them, and for tourists who won’t be around to dispute the measurement.