Legislative Update: E-Bikes, Road Charge, Active Transportation, and More

It’s time for our monthly legislative update. In our last update, we only included legislation that Streetsblog had previously covered. Today, we’re adding legislation that was sponsored by groups such as CalBike, Streets for All, Streets Are For Everyone.

Assembly Legislation

Assembly Bill 1421, Vehicles: Road Usage Charge Technical Advisory Committee, directs the California Transportation Commission to continue and deepen a study into whether a road usage charge could eventually serve as an alternative to the state’s traditional gas tax. Passed the Assembly and was assigned to the Rules Committee in the Senate.

This is the legislation that created a stir with right-wing influencers who told followers either that it would replace the gas tax with a vehicle miles traveled fee, that it was already passed and would do so, or would add a VMT fee to the existing gas tax. In both article and short video, Streetsblog explained how none that was not true. While the legislation has not moved since the last update, it has added a list of supporting organizations.

Assembly Bill 1546, Driving under the influence, would increase penalties for repeat DUI offenders to bring California law more in line with other states. Assigned to Public Safety Committee.

Assembly Bill 1557, Vehicles: Electric Bicycles, would limit the motor output of e-bikes sold in the state to a maximum of 750 watts, aligning with existing federal e-bike definitions. Assigned to Transportation Committee. Streetsblog covered the introduction of this legislation. The legislation was scheduled to be heard later this month, but the hearing was cancelled.

Assembly Bill 1599: Public transit: California Transit Stop Registry: transit datasets, would create a statewide unique identifier for every transit stop. This legislation was unanimously passed by the Transportation Committee and awaits a hearing from the Appropriations Committee. Streetsblog discussed this legislation in episode 14.1 of StreetSmart.

Assembly Bill 1662, Driving record: points: misdemeanor diversion, would change existing law so that drivers who avoid fines through a court-mandated misdemeanor diversion program would still receive points on their driving record. This legislation was unanimously passed by Public Safety, and awaits a hearing from the Appropriations Committee and Transportation Committee. Streetsblog covered the introduction of this legislation as part of a package of bills intended to reduce the number of DUI deaths.

Assembly Bill 1740, Coastal resources: coastal development permits: urban multimodal communities: bicycle facilities, would allow qualifying cities to bypass individual California Coastal Commission approvals for certain housing and transportation projects if they meet specific urban, multimodal criteria. Assigned to Natural Resources, and Housing & Community Development Committees. Streetsblog covered this legislation when it was introduced.

Assembly Bill 1833, Consumer Driving Data Protection Act of 2026, lets drivers voluntarily opt into insurance telematics with privacy protections. Assigned to the Committees on Privacy and Consumer Protection, & Insurace

Assembly Bill 1837, Video imaging of parking violations, would make transit lane and bus stop camera enforcement permanent statewide. This legislation has passed the Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee and awaits a hearing in the Transportation Committee.

Assembly Bill 1942, the E-Bike Accountability Act, would require owners of Class 2 and Class 3 electric bicycles to register those bikes with the California Department of Motor Vehicles and display a special license plate issued by the DMV. Assigned to the Transportation Committee.

Streetsblog already covered this legislation twice, both when it was introduced and the backlash from advocacy groups that feel it is the wrong fix for problems associated with e-motos.

Assembly Bill 1976, Streets and highways: pedestrian and bicycle facilities, is a wide-ranging California Assembly bill aimed at streamlining the planning, construction, and protection of pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure across the state. The legislation was assigned to the Assembly Transportation Committee and was scheduled to be heard this month. That hearing was postponed.

Streetsblog covered this legislation just last week.

Assembly Bill 2015, Navigation programs: slow streets, would help cities “keep slow streets slow” by stopping navigation apps from routing cut-through traffic onto neighborhood streets designed for local access, walking, and biking. The legislation was assigned to the Committees on Transportation and Local Government.

Assembly Bill 2276, The Stop Super Speeders Act, would create a statewide pilot program requiring reckless and excessive speed offenders to install active intelligent speed assistance (ISA) devices in their vehicles as a condition of regaining driving privileges. This legislation was assigned to the Public Safety and Privacy & Consumer Protection Committees Streetsblog covered this legislation when it was introduced.

Assembly Bill 2168, Active Transportation Program: guidelines, would include transit-rich and infill opportunity areas as a program priority, prioritize the leveraging of more state transportation funding to the ATP, and mandate the implementation of penalties for applicants who do not use previously allocated program funds promptly. This legislation has been assigned to the Assembly Transportation Committee.

Assembly Bill 2284, Electric bicycles: Attorney General list, would equire CHP to publish a list of devices marketed as e-bikes that are not actually legal e-bikes. The legislation was assigned to the Transportation Committee.

Senate Legislation

Senate Bill 677, Housing development: transit-oriented development, aims to strengthen California’s transit-oriented housing laws by closing loopholes used by cities to evade development requirements. The bill expands definitions to include high-frequency ferry service and reinforces mandates for building housing near major transit stops. Passed Senate, awaiting committee assignment in Assembly.

This legislation is related to Senate Bill 79 that was extensively covered last year. Streetsblog covered SB 677 in an article about Los Angeles Metro’s attempts to avoid enforcing SB 79.

Senate Bill 1035, Motor vehicle fuel tax: greenhouse gas reduction programs: suspension, would suspend the state gas tax and other fuel charges for one year. Assigned to the Senate Environmental Quality and Revenue & Taxation Committees. This legislation was defeated in committee on a 2-2 vote, but can come up for a vote again under reconsideration.

Streetsblog covered this legislation when it was introduced and critiqued it in a short video.

Senate Bill 1167, Vehicles: Electric Bicycles, seeks to define the differences between e-bikes and e-motos. It just passed the Senate Transportation Committee earlier today. It still needs a vote at the Natural Resources Committees. Streetsblog discussed this legislation in episode 14.1 of StreetSmart.

Senate Bill 1411, Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund: funding conditions: high-speed rail, would lift restrictions limiting high-speed rail spending to the Merced–Bakersfield segment. That could accelerate work in Southern California or toward the Bay Area. Assigned to the Transportation and Environmental Quality Committees. Streetsblog discussed this legislation in episode 14.2 of StreetSmart.

Senate Bill 1423, Transportation funding: State Transportation Improvement Program: Active Transportation Program would steer half of STIP funds toward projects that make streets safer for people walking, biking, and taking transit, while also making the state’s top safe streets grant program easier for cities to access. This legislation was assigned to the Committees on Natural Resources, and Environmental Management.

Senate Bill 1292, County community schools and juvenile court schools: administration and operation, gives cities stronger curb management tools to enforce parking violations in loading zones, bike lanes, and crosswalks. The legislation will be heard by the Transportation Committee on April 14.