Santa Monica drivers who treat bike lanes like loading zones are officially on notice. The city has kicked off a 60-day grace period for its new automated bike-lane enforcement program, which uses cameras on parking-enforcement vehicles to flag cars that are stopped or parked where cyclists are supposed to ride. Warnings are going out now, and starting July 1, the registered owners of vehicles caught blocking bike lanes will be looking at $93 tickets after a city parking officer reviews the evidence. Officials say the goal is to keep people on bikes, scooters and mobility devices out of fast-moving traffic lanes and to boost safety across the network.
What Drivers Need To Know
The warning phase began May 1. For the first 60 days, the city is mailing warning notices instead of fines so drivers have time to adjust to the new rules, according to the City of Santa Monica. Once the grace period ends on July 1, those automated detections flip into $93 citations. The city says payment plans will be available for low-income residents who receive tickets.
How The Cameras Work
The enforcement system runs on Hayden AI’s computer-vision platform, which uses two forward-facing cameras mounted on the roofs of traffic-services vehicles to automatically spot potential bike-lane obstructions and generate an evidence package, the company says. “Keeping bike lanes clear of illegally parked vehicles not only keeps cyclists safe, but it improves accessibility for people with disabilities,” Hayden AI CEO Marty Beard said in the company’s announcement. Every evidence package is reviewed by city staff before any citation goes out, according to Hayden AI.
Early Results From ABLE
City leaders are betting on this approach because they have already seen how it can change behavior. Santa Monica previously launched an Automated Bus Lane and Bus Stop Enforcement program, known as ABLE, on Big Blue Bus vehicles, and officials say it produced swift results. The city reports that bus-lane violations dropped by about 67% and bus-stop violations by about 40% when comparing July 2025 to March 2026, with the single worst bus-lane hot spot improving by 73% and the worst bus-stop location improving by 49%. A May 2024 pilot of the same technology recorded nearly 1,700 bike-lane violations in just six weeks, highlighting how widespread the problem was, according to Santa Monica Next.
Where The Cameras Will Roll
To get more coverage, city staff asked the council earlier this year to add $944,000 to Santa Monica’s contract with Hayden AI, enough to equip up to seven parking-enforcement vehicles as part of a broader $1.6 million package of contract changes for automated enforcement and transit tracking. The expansion will be paid for with Measure K, the voter-approved parking facility tax. City officials say this buildout is meant to supplement ABLE’s reach and extend automated oversight across more of the local bike network, as reported by the Santa Monica Daily Press.
Where You Will See New Protection
Enforcement is arriving alongside fresh concrete. The city is upgrading the Broadway bike lane with physical separation between 5th and 26th Streets and building a protected one-way bike lane on westbound Colorado Avenue between 17th and 5th Streets, the city’s mobility office says. Officials say pairing hard infrastructure with automated enforcement is intended to make daily bike trips feel safer and more comfortable, not just for confident riders but for everyone else who might be bike-curious.
Enforcement And Legal Notes
City and company communications emphasize that human reviewers look at each evidence package before any citation is issued and that registered owners will receive mailed notices during the warning period. Drivers who do end up with tickets will go through the same contest and payment procedures that apply to other parking citations, and the city says payment plans will be available for qualifying low-income residents, according to the City of Santa Monica.
