Electric-bike-share companies like Santa Barbara’s BCycle dodged a legislative bullet in Sacramento this Thursday. Language that would have required them to carry insurance should riders injure themselves was dropped from AB 371 in a legislative committee in Sacramento.
The new language — adopted by the State Senate’s Appropriation Committee — will require only that scooter rental companies get such insurance coverage, and bike companies were let off the legislative hook.
This turn of events — happy news for BCycle, which runs the fleet of 180 white rental electric bikes throughout downtown — probably reflects the relative power of the bicycle lobby in Sacramento as opposed to the scooter lobby. It also reflects the fact that the electric rental scooters have a greater tendency to wind up as heaps of street and sidewalk clutter.