La Mesa, CA Mobility & Curb Rules: Bike Lane Rules (2026)

Section 12.40.031, adopted by Ordinance 2018 on July 10, 1975, makes it unlawful to park or permit to be parked any vehicle, excepting emergency vehicles, at any time, in any bike lane, when said lane is properly posted. The posting requirement matters: § 12.16.020 separately requires that no traffic provision needing signs be enforced against a violator unless appropriate legible signs are actually in place, so a bike lane has to carry visible signage or pavement marking before a parking citation there will hold up.

The city traffic engineer's general authority to mark and post bike lanes and other restricted zones comes from § 12.40.030, which lets the engineer maintain no-stopping, no-parking and restricted-parking areas by sign or by paint on the curb; once those markings or signs are in place, § 12.40.030 independently bars stopping, standing or parking adjacent to them. Because § 12.40.031 does not set its own fine, enforcement defaults to the citywide general penalty clause at § 1.01.080: absent a special punishment, a code violation is an infraction, punishable by a fine not exceeding two hundred fifty dollars, though the city attorney may instead pursue a misdemeanor charge carrying up to one thousand dollars and six months in the San Diego County jail.

Each day a vehicle remains unlawfully parked in the bike lane counts as a separate offense under § 1.01.080(a)(4). La Mesa Police Department traffic enforcement, working from the Chapter 12 vehicle code adopted locally, is the agency positioned to issue these citations, and the emergency-vehicle exception tracks the same carve-out used elsewhere in Title 12's stopping and standing rules.