Sacramento to use more AI-cameras to enhance parking enforcement in bike lanes
Sacramento parking officers will now issue bike lane violations without stopping their vehicles, using AI-powered cameras to catch motorists who block paths used by cyclists and children traveling to school.
The program uses three Sacramento parking enforcement vehicles with front-facing cameras that automatically capture images of vehicles parked illegally in bike lanes as officers drive their normal routes, according to a city news release. The images are transmitted to the city, where staff review them to determine whether a citation should be issued.
For the first 60 days, vehicle owners will receive warning notices by mail. Starting July 13, violations detected by the cameras will result in a $150 citation. The fine increased from $100 on Tuesday, when the Sacramento approved hundreds of fee hikes to help fill a $66 million budget gap.
“Bike lanes are only good for safety if they’re available,” said Kendra Ramsey, executive director of the California Bicycle Coalition.
“It’s actually worse to have a bike lane that’s blocked than to have no bike lane at all,” Ramsey added, because it can force cyclists to dart into oncoming traffic.
The city said the initial rollout will focus on school zones.
According to city officials, Sacramento has received repeated complaints about illegal parking near schools in Natomas, but staffing limitations and the volume of violations during peak drop-off and pickup times have hindered enforcement.
“Too often, vehicles stopping in bike lanes and near intersections create dangerous conditions for children walking or biking to school,” Councilmember Lisa Kaplan said in the news release. “Expanding this enforcement program will help improve visibility, reduce conflicts and support safer streets in our neighborhoods.”
The cameras expand Sacramento’s automated parking enforcement program, which began last year using 100 AI-assisted cameras installed on Sacramento Regional Transit buses in December 2024. The city started issuing citations in February 2025 to vehicles blocking bus stops and expanded the program in June 2025 to include vehicles parked in bike lanes.
As of Tuesday, the city had issued 32,478 bus stop citations and 25,312 bike lane citations since the AI-assisted program launched.
Assembly Bill 361, a 2023 state law, authorized cities to use forward-facing cameras to enforce bike lane parking violations.
Ramsey said she supports the program as a whole because it makes citation times less predictable.
“People would (illegally park) because they knew it was almost impossible for them to be punished,” Ramsey said. But with the cameras on both buses and parking enforcement vehicles, “the person knows, I can’t just look out for an enforcement vehicle. I need to not break the law because I might not know that they’re going to drive by.”
Ramsey said she understands concerns regarding data collection and sharing that can occur with AI technology, but said she believes enough guardrails are in place to keep Hayden AI, the maker of the cameras, and the city from misusing or even collecting too much information. Under California law, data unrelated to a suspected violation must be destroyed within 15 days, and images cannot be processed by automated license plate recognition systems such as Flock, which is deployed in several jurisdictions outside of Sacramento’s city limits.
The expanded enforcement program is part of Sacramento’s Vision Zero initiative, which aims to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2027.
This year, at least 19 people have died. Their names are Reema Ram, 37; Christian David Garcia Flores, 31; Eunice La Vonne Queener, 67; Maria Aurora Victoria Titman, 29; Paris Lamar Johnson, 34; Ronald Howard, 68; Kalia Giselle Cabello Fernandez, 22; Josefina D. Guzman, 45; Dwayne Andrew Henderson, 44; Domonik Frederick Gross, 33; Habiba Safi, 33; Miguel Ramirez Padilla, 23; William Douglas Wradge, 27; Rule Allah Yahya Smith, 32; David Mordecai Meyer, 38; Forrest Murray Coss, 70; Lue Lawrence Powell, 53; Ariana Yaretzi Ayala Munoz, 19; and one man whose name has not yet been released by the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office.
Last year, at least 32 people died in crashes on Sacramento streets.
