New California laws signed by Newsom crack down on improperly labeled e-bikes, impose new safety rules, and establish a pilot program allowing jurisdictions in San Mateo County to ban children under 12 from riding them.
The new laws signed Wednesday include Senate Bill 1167, which sets clearer rules for what can legally be sold and advertised as an e-bike in California. Starting January 1, 2027, electric vehicles that exceed the state’s e-bike limits cannot be marketed as e-bikes, with faster and more powerful devices instead classified as mopeds or motor-driven cycles.
As the Sacramento Bee reports, Senator Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, who introduced SB 1167, said the change is intended to protect consumers who may think they are buying a bicycle when they are actually purchasing something closer to a motorcycle.
“There are so many examples of essentially motorcycles being driven by kids that are underage and parents buying things that they don’t even know what it is,” Blakespear said, speaking to the Bee.
Under California law, Class 1 e-bikes provide pedal assistance up to 20 mph, Class 2 bikes have a throttle and stop assisting at 20 mph, and Class 3 bikes provide pedal assistance up to 28 mph and can only be ridden by people 16 and older. Devices exceeding those limits will no longer be allowed to use the e-bike designation.
The law also creates more specific labeling requirements. According to the Bee, e-bike labels will have to identify the bike’s top assisted speed, motor wattage, class, brand, and manufacturer, importer, or distributor. Similar labeling requirements will apply to mopeds and motor-driven cycles.
SB 1167 also aims to make crash data more useful by requiring law enforcement to distinguish between different types of electric vehicles. Police and hospital records have frequently grouped various electric vehicles under the broad “e-bike” label, making it difficult to determine what types of devices are actually involved in crashes.
Kendra Ramsey, executive director of the California Bicycle Coalition, said the legislation gives consumers and sellers a clearer way to distinguish legal e-bikes from other electric vehicles.
“Starting out by saying a legal e-bike is something defined in law, and you can’t sell something under the term e-bike unless it actually meets those qualifications, is just a really common sense way to differentiate between legal devices and devices that are not bicycles,” Ramsey told the Bee.
SB 1167 was one of three e-bike measures Newsom signed Wednesday. Assembly Bill 2346, authored by Assemblymembers Lori Wilson, D-Suisun City, and Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto, establishes a 10 mph speed limit for e-bikes on sidewalks and requires Class 2 e-bikes sold beginning January 1, 2029, to have speedometers.
As KQED reports, the third measure, AB 2595, allows local governments in San Mateo County to prohibit children under 12 from riding Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes, as part of a pilot program running from 2027 through 2031. Similar programs were previously approved for Marin and San Diego counties, while California already prohibits riders under 16 from using Class 3 e-bikes.
The San Mateo County pilot would reportedly be optional for individual cities and other local jurisdictions. Police could issue a $25 fine to underage riders beginning 60 days after a local ban takes effect.
Foster City Councilmember Stacy Jimenez told KQED she was looking forward to using the new authority in Foster City.
“Success doesn’t mean fewer kids riding bikes — it means more kids riding and riding safely, and AB 2595 will help cities and our county do that,” Jimenez said.
Marin County has reported fewer youth e-bike crashes since implementing its own restrictions, although it said children ages 10 to 15 still have an e-bike accident rate nearly four times higher than other age groups, per KQED.
Noelia Corzo, president of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, said there are “valid concerns in terms of public health and street safety,” but said she would not support applying the pilot to the county’s unincorporated areas. She questioned how police would enforce an age-based restriction.
“How is a police officer going to know if someone is younger than 12?” Corzo said, speaking to KQED. “The only way is to stop children and ask them, and that’s not an action I feel comfortable with taking place en masse.”
AB 1569, the first e-bike measure signed this year, separately requires the California Department of Education and California Highway Patrol to develop an e-bike safety program for students in grades 7 through 12, as the Bee reports.
Blakespear said manufacturers, sellers, and advertisers should begin preparing for the new classification rules before they take effect, while Ramsey said SB 1167’s focus on defining e-bikes rather than restricting their use helped it gain broad support in the Legislature.
“Bicycle safety starts with knowing what your bike can do and following the safety requirements that come with it,” she said.
Related: Teen’s E-Moto Bike Crash, Repeated Prior Citations Land Parents Child Abuse Charges
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