California’s growing fleet of electric bikes is the subject of two new laws signed this week by Governor Gavin Newsom and intended to increase the safety of the quickly growing form of alternative transportation.
Authored by Assemblywoman Laurie Davies, the bills aim to address increasing concerns about e-bike visibility and illegally fast speeds.
The first bill, AB 544, requires e-bikes to be equipped with a red reflector or flashing red light on the rear of the vehicle when ridden in the dark. The goal is to make e-bike riders more visible to drivers and reduce nighttime collisions.
“Motor vehicles rated for highway use must have certain safety features, like headlights and brake lights,” said a fact sheet supporting the bill. “However, e-bikes don’t need any of these, making them harder to spot and more dangerous for riders.”
This is not strictly correct, as Consumer Product Safety Commission guidelines already require all bicycles sold in the US, including electric bicycles, to have reflectors in the front and rear and on both the pedals and wheels. But the new California bill adds that the reflected light must be visible from 500 feet (152 meters) when illuminated by a car’s headlights.
Top comment by Peter Mateja
I definitely think there's a problem with unlocked speed governors on e-bikes... especially with teenagers who eschew getting their license (probably a good thing) for riding e-bikes with throttles that are so torquey that they can do wheelies from a cold start. But some other larger safety issues are at play, which are much too expensive to be politically possible: road designs, bike routes and bike paths are mostly ill thought, slap on efforts in many places I've biked, certainly in the Bay Area. Bike safety as a systematic design issue is seemingly never a real priority.
And, as far as e-bikes and speed. I regularly bike on a path with a 15mph speed limit, with my class 3 e-bike, which is strictly forbidden. I make an honest attempt to always stay at or around this limit, and often go slower when there are pedestrians. I regularly witness spandex clad tour-de-farce riders on high end road bikes who blow past me on those trails... I'd estimate that they are blazing at 22-24 mph at times, even past pedestrians. Safety isn't about the equipment here, as much as it is about the thing between your ears.
The second bill, AB 545, is described by the OCRegister as a technical “clean-up” law that strengthens existing rules against modifying e-bikes to exceed legal speed limits. Under current law, Class 1 and 2 e-bikes are limited to 20 mph (32 km/h), and Class 3 bikes can go up to 28 mph (45 km/h).
A previous law passed last year already made it illegal to tamper with an e-bike or sell devices that help bypass these limits. The new law goes further by adding smartphone apps to the list of prohibited tools. These apps, some available on popular platforms like the Apple App Store and Google Play, are able to digitally “unlock” e-bikes and boost speed or power beyond legal thresholds.
“With ever-changing technology, these bills allow us to equip e-bikes with new safety lights plus eliminate the possibility of riders acquiring applications to illegally rig their bikes,” said Davies. “Product innovation shouldn’t come at the cost of public safety.”
With e-bike usage continuing to climb across California, lawmakers are racing to ensure that rider safety and public trust keep up with the technology. Each year brings a rise in cyclist fatalities across the state, involving both electric and traditional pedal bikes. And while efforts to regulate e-bike safety are important, it’s impossible to ignore the common thread in nearly every cycling and pedestrian death in California: cars. The greatest danger to riders isn’t the bikes themselves – it’s the vehicles around them. Providing safer cycling infrastructure and increasing enforcement of car traffic violations such as speeding and dangerous overtaking can save lives.
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