Legislative Update: If it Got to the Governor’s Desk, It Was Signed
This legislative session was a bit of an outlier. While the governor’s office has usually been a roadblock for some of our favorite legislation, this year it was the legislature that was the problem.
Every piece of legislation that we were tracking that made it to the governor’s desk was signed. But critical bills to crack down on super speeders, to study moving from the gas tax to a VMT tax, or to allow the California High-Speed Rail Authority to build outside of the Central Valley, were all defeated in the legislature.
Below is our final list of legislation for the year, noting what was passed and signed into law and what will have to wait until 2027 (or beyond). One hopes that next year’s session will deal with the statewide funding crisis created by declining gas taxes and reduced state and federal support. This legislature did a lot of good, but in the years to come their legacy will probably be more about what they didn’t do than what they did.
Passed Into Law
Assembly Bill 1546, Driving under the influence, would increase penalties for repeat DUI offenders to bring California law more in line with other states.
Assembly Bill 1569, Electric Bicycle: Safety and Training Program: requires the California Department of Education, in consultation with the CHP, to develop a standardized e-bike safety and training program for students in grades 7 through 12 – by March 2028.
Assembly Bill 1599: Public transit: California Transit Stop Registry: transit datasets, creates a statewide unique identifier for every transit stop. Streetsblog discussed this legislation in episode 14.1 of StreetSmart and it was co-sponsored by Move California.
Assembly Bill 1740, Coastal resources: coastal development permits: urban multimodal communities: bicycle facilities, was heavily amended after it was first introduced to now provide a specific timeline for Santa Monica to receive certification of its Coastal Plan from the Coastal Commission. Streetsblog covered this legislation when it was introduced and after it was amended.
Assembly Bill 1837, Video imaging of parking violations, makes transit lane and bus stop camera enforcement permanent statewide.
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.
Streetsblog wrote about this legislation as it was moving in the Assembly.
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.
Assembly Bill 2168, Active Transportation Program guidelines, includes transit-rich and infill opportunity areas as a program priority, prioritizes the leveraging of more state transportation funding to the ATP, and mandates the implementation of penalties for applicants who do not use previously allocated grant funds promptly.
Senate Bill 114, Budget Acts of 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025, this legislation does a lot of things, including preventing the City of Encinitas from removing a protected bikeway from Santa Fe Drive.
Senate Bill 194, Forest Lawn Drive, this legislation uses a lot of fancy wording to effectively kill a planned safety improvement project slated for Forest Lawn Drive in Los Angeles.
Senate Bill 677, Housing development: transit-oriented development, strengthens 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.
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 1167, Vehicles: Electric Bicycles, defines the differences between e-bikes and e-motorcycles (e-motos). Streetsblog discussed this legislation in episode 14.1 of StreetSmart and when it passed the full Senate.
Senate Bill 1423, Transportation funding: State Transportation Improvement Program: Active Transportation Program steers 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.
Failed in the Legislature
Assembly Bill 1557, Vehicles: Electric Bicycles, would have limited the motor output of e-bikes sold in the state to a maximum of 750 watts, aligning with existing federal e-bike definitions. Streetsblog covered the introduction of this legislation. The legislation did not clear the Assembly.
Assembly Bill 1833, Consumer Driving Data Protection Act of 2026, would have allowed drivers to voluntarily opt into insurance telematics with privacy protections. This legislation did not pass the Assembly.
Assembly Bill 1942, the E-Bike Accountability Act, would have required 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.
Streetsblog covered this legislation twice, both when it was introduced and the backlash from advocacy groups. This legislation did not pass the Assembly.
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. Streetsblog covered this legislation when it was introduced.
This legislation did not pass the Assembly, much to the consternation of safety advocates.
Assembly Bill 2284, Electric bicycles: Attorney General list, would require 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.
This legislation did not pass the Assembly and never even received a committee vote.
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. Streetsblog covered this legislation when it was introduced and critiqued it in a short video.
This legislation was defeated in committee and never received a floor vote.
Senate Bill 1411, Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund funding conditions for high-speed rail, would have lifted restrictions limiting high-speed rail spending to the Merced–Bakersfield segment. That could accelerate work in Southern California or toward the Bay Area. Streetsblog discussed this legislation in episode 14.2 of StreetSmart.
This legislation did not pass the Assembly.
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