Making e-bikes safer in California is smart. Smothering this new technology is not
Electric bikes are powering an urban transportation revolution. They flatten hills, haul cargo and people, and offer an alternative to driving that doesn’t involve breaking much of a sweat or waiting for a bus.
I’ve experienced these wonders firsthand. For the last three years, I have used an e-bike — an electric-motor assisted bicycle — to do everything from commuting 23 miles across Los Angeles for work to meeting up with friends at places where finding a parking spot takes longer than the drive over. In a city choked by traffic and pollution, calling these machines liberating isn’t an overstatement.
But there’s also been a flurry of media coverage about skyrocketing injuries, prompting local and state authorities to start cracking down on e-bike usage. And earlier this year, California legislators looked ready to squeeze the brakes hard on this revolution. Happily, they’ve since retreated from e-bike panic and are focused, at least for now, on smarter safety measures.
Lawmakers in Sacramento have introduced at least eight bills this year targeting e-bike safety. One would have added licensing and registration requirements for most e-bikes; another would have rewritten the state’s classification system, making most e-bikes already rolling on California streets illegal.
Thankfully, those bills died, and with them a level of regulation that could throttle an efficient, clean and fun transportation option in California, and hamper a technology that is already driving the majority of revenue growth in the bicycle industry.
In contrast, Senate Bill 1167, introduced by Sen. Catherine Blakespear, is a carefully considered response to the most crucial motorized-bike safety concern. It seeks to halt the sale of powerful electric motorcycles disguised as e-bikes, and it cleared the state Senate in May and is moving through the Assembly.
Under California law, electric bicycles cannot exceed 28 mph assisted by the motor (models that people younger than 16 can legally ride are even slower). But more powerful devices that go faster than 28 mph — sometimes much faster — are often marketed as e-bikes, even though they are more properly understood as electric motorcycles. I’ve seen such powerful electric motorcycles comically passed off as e-bikes simply because, look, there are pedals.
This commentary was originally published by CalMatters.
