Scheduling note: WhatMatters is taking Indigenous Peoples’ Day off and will return to your inboxes Tuesday.
With more e-bikes on roads and sidewalks, Gov. Gavin Newsom last week signed three new laws that aim to strengthen safety for riders and pedestrians.
One of the laws sets sidewalk speed limits and another cracks down on electric motorcycles, which are much faster, that are deceptively marketed as e-bikes.
The third paves the way for San Mateo County to pilot a program banning children under 12 from riding certain lower-speed e-bikes. Parents or guardians whose children violate the law will be issued a $25 fine.
California does not have an age minimum for most e-bikes, although riders of the fastest ones must be at least 16. The governor in 2024 signed laws to establish similar programs in San Diego and Marin counties.
E-bikes require a level of judgment and situational awareness that young children do not yet have, said Robin Pang-Maganaris, a city council member for Belmont.
Pang-Maganaris, at an April hearing: “What results is not just a risk to those children, but an undue and unfair burden on drivers, parents, teachers and community members who are forced to anticipate the unpredictable movements of these young e-bikes.”
But e-bike proponents said the San Mateo pilot risks criminalizing and overpolicing e-bike riders. Streets for All, a transit safety advocacy group, characterized the plan as ineffective and premature since data from San Diego County’s pilot has not yet been submitted to the Legislature.
Car drivers also remain a much greater threat on roads, said critics, and legislators should focus more on creating roads that accommodate all types of users, instead of just regulating e-bikes.
David Martinez, Streets for All’s state policy manager, to CalMatters: “If we just had more protected, safe infrastructure where people from ages 8 to 80 can ride safely and feel comfortable while riding, then we can also … reduce the number of crashes that happen.”
Toward a people-centered agenda: How can California make community participation part of everyday government decision-making? Our partners at the UC Berkeley Possibility Lab outline 20 proposals for the next governor’s first 100 days in the latest Knowledge Hub report.
CalMatters and the UC Student and Policy Center are hosting an Oct. 13 lunchtime conversation in Sacramento on the ballot propositions shaping California’s future. We will break down what each measure would do and what’s at stake before you vote. Register today.
Other Stories You Should Know
Light reading: Propositions on local taxes and CEQA 😜
By now you’re probably getting mailers about California ballot propositions, seeing ads about them when you’re streaming shows and trying to make sense of the initiatives.
We’re here to help. Our reporters have two new stories today breaking down tax measure Proposition 43 and environmental initiative Prop. 45:
Anti-tax advocates support Prop. 43, which would raise the threshold for citizen-backed local tax measures from a simple majority to two thirds. Supporters like the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association argue that levying taxes should require a higher degree of consensus. But local government officials, labor unions and affordable housing advocates oppose it. They say Prop. 43 would make it harder to collect revenue for crucial services, and allow a one-third “minority rule” to block taxes a majority of people approved. Read more from Yue Stella Yu.
Prop. 45 would streamline housing development by exempting some projects from environmental review. Proponents say this would save developers time and money and potentially ease California’s housing crunch by decreasing the cost of the average home by $75,000, according to one estimate. But opponents say the proposal undermines the state’s key environmental review law and strips away power from agencies that are looking out for communities. Read more from Alejandra Reyes-Velarde.
How they’d solve the insurance crisis
The two Democratic candidates running for insurance commissioner — former San Francisco supervisor Jane Kim and state Sen. Ben Allen — have a lot in common, with both promising to be tough on the insurance industry.
But they also offer different ways to solve the state’s insurance problems, writes CalMatters’ Levi Sumagaysay, who on Thursday moderated a panel with the two candidates in Sacramento.
One of Kim’s proposals is public disaster insurance, which she said would be funded by premiums policyholders already pay to insurance companies. The state would run the program and could invest some of the revenue from premiums into wildfire risk mitigation.
Allen’s plan for mitigation, meanwhile, would include pushing the insurance industry to do more to reduce fire risk: “The commissioner is uniquely positioned to force the industry to the table to be a part of the solution, to help to incentivize and reward real, meaningful resilience,” he said.
And lastly: State workers set a strike date
California’s largest state worker union voted Thursday to go on a one-day strike on Oct. 21, after months of failing to reach a labor agreement with the Newsom administration. SEIU Local 1000 represents about 100,000 public employees, and it is demanding better pay and benefits and more flexibility to work from home. The walkout could result in delayed services at the DMV and the state’s unemployment and disability insurance offices, said the union’s president. Read more.
California Voices
Exorbitant wealth imperils people’s ethical bearings — and the outsized power money has on politics has the potential to unravel communities and democracy, writes Mary Gomes, a psychology professor at Sonoma State University.
Other things worth your time:
Newsom weighs sparing all 563 prisoners on death row // The New York Times (gift link)
CA’s once-mighty wine industry is on the ropes // SFGate (free)
SoCal’s famed coastal railroad may have to move to survive rising seas. How could it happen? // Los Angeles Times (paywall)
‘Unprecedented’: San Diego officials blast DOJ subpoena for voting records // inewsource (free)
CA’s data center capital weighs more regulations // KQED (free)
CA volunteers mismanaged millions in Americorps grants, audit says // The Sacramento Bee (gift link)
10 species show what’s at stake as Trump targets Endangered Species Act // Grist (free)
Did a dog write this? Study says letting dogs sleep next to you is good for you // NBC (free)