The main reason for this ban: noise and pollutants from gasoline powered skateboards. As it stands now, the law technically bans both gas and electric powered skateboards.
Gears are moving within the California State Assembly in the form of AB 604 to change this and legalize electrically motorized skateboards. If you live in the state of California, we urge you to contact one of these transportation committee members with your support for the bill.
Yeah, in some cities they will take your board. Most don’t even notice you. This ambiguous law definitely needs to change. I have already sent letters.
Motorized. Motor. Motor vs Engine. The difference here is both crucial and ignored.
Motors are electrical, Engines burn dinosaur shit. One of the many practical failings of American english is that something eventually becomes whatever enough uninformed people say it is. Also, skateboards fall into this grey area where they’re just a skateboard, but they have motors, but a lot of people on unpowered bikes are actually faster, but motors, but skateboard.
Another prime example of this are all the “no motorized vehicles” on the bike trails i frequent. Obviously they mean golf carts and motorcycles, etc and not people on roller blades (which are also very very fast) and longboards (which can be pretty damned fast too) and bicycles (which are also pretty fast) so its clearly a lexical issue and not a logical one.
Sorry for ressurecting this topic but just thought I’d mention that electric boards have just been legalized to ride on the roads in California due to the following Bill.
However, it will require skateboards or their riders to have headlights/lamp and reflectors at night. It also says the skateboards need to be incapable of going faster than 20mph but I don’t think authorities would have any way of distinguishing that unless they see you going that fast.
The issue I think still exists with this law is not ALL electric skateboards all legal. The law actually seems to set the speed limit at 15 mph, which is just absurd.
A person shall not operate an electrically motorized board upon a
highway, bikeway, or any other public bicycle path, sidewalk, or trail,
at a speed in excess of 15 miles per hour
The other issue is, my board does not meet the requirements of an
electrically motorized board, as it goes faster then 20 mph and runs at a
higher power then 1000 watts.
So technically, my board, and most peoples boards are still illegal.
I don’t think most cops will strictly enforce the speed limit laws, as they are absurd. Why would you limit an electric skateboard to 15 mph when non motorized bikes and non motorized skateboards can go as fast as they want? I ride about 20 mph most of the time and still, bikes fly by me all the time.
Also, there’s a ban of riding in parks, which I use to get to school. Now, to comply with the law, I have to go on a busy 35 mph road that runs parallel with the park instead of inside golden gate park, where there’s far less traffic and 25 mph speed limit.
A person shall not drive a vehicle or animal, or stop, park, orleave standing a vehicle or animal, whether attended or unattended, uponthe driveways, paths, parking facilities, or the grounds of any publicschool, state university, state college, unit of the state park system,county park,
in florida you just can’t ride them anywhere technically but nobody gives a damn. in fact most people are very interested in what that is and where you got it and how much was it and you built that yourself wow. Even cops. I was invited to some cop event by a cop who wanted me to ride around on my board. I politely declined, but still. Its a weird situation.
Personally, I’ve never had anything but smiles or indifferent looks from cops. But as they define laws about electric skateboards, it gives cops more of an excuse to say “well, I think we have a fair law now and you broke it”, even though this law in particular is not reasonable.
All you need is one dick cop who thinks he is god and he can confiscate your illegal electric skateboard.
Well just to clarify, the law is actually 20mph not 15. And yes technically it says “capable of” going faster than that which would make many boards illegal, but at the same time, unless you are seen actually going faster than that, its impossible to know what speed your board is capable of going at by looking at it.
evoheyax that law you quoted sounds strange as it would imply it is illegal to even drive a car in golden gate park ? I would venture a guess that its still ok to ride through there as long as you stay on the roads. I’m not really sure but perhaps the public roadways aren’t technically considered part of the park.
*edit
I actually think its fine to go through on the public roads. There are the following sections:
(b) A governing board, legislative body, or officer shall erect or place appropriate signs giving notice of any special conditions or regulations that are imposed under this section and the governing board, legislative body, or officer shall also prepare and keep available at the principal administrative office of the governing board, legislative body, or officer, for examination by all interested persons, a written statement of all those special conditions and regulations adopted pursuant to this section.
(c) When a governing board, legislative body, or officer permits public traffic upon the driveways, paths, parking facilities, or grounds under their control then, except for those conditions imposed or regulations enacted by the governing board, legislative body, or officer applicable to the traffic, all the provisions of this code relating to traffic upon the highways shall be applicable to the traffic upon the driveways, paths, parking facilities, or grounds.
So I take it this means there would be signs telling you its not allowed if it wasn’t. In regards to “c”, I think Golden Gate Park “permits public traffic” to vehicles. Perhaps this law was made for some other kinds of parks, maybe parks that don’t allow public traffic through them.
A person shall not operate an electrically motorized board upon a
highway, bikeway, or any other public bicycle path, sidewalk, or trail,
at a speed in excess of 15 miles per hour
I don’t want to argue about it, but that seems pretty clear to me to set the speed limit at 15 mph. I know it defines an electric skateboard as a board capable of 20 mph or less, but that piece seems clear. Everything I am quoting is from this bill. you can copy, search and paste it, and you’ll find it in the text.
It really doesn’t matter what this law says anyways as most electric skateboards are not covered in this law, seeing as most boards do not meet the definition of being capable of no more than 20 mph and less than 1000 watts.
ah I see sorry about that I didn’t notice that part. All of the articles that came out back when it was legalized also neglected that part, they only mentioned the “capable of 20mph” part.
I understand from a technical standpoint it may not matter what the law says since everyones already breaking it with powerful boards, but I do think it matters, because if you don’t exceed 15mph, authorities wouldn’t be able to stop you to “check what your board is capable of”. It does suck to have to limit to 15mph, but I think you can look at it this way, that if you stay below 15mph (when around authorities) you are probably guaranteed to never get trouble, but anyway like you mentioned, it seems in SF no one gets any trouble for riding eboards anyway, even from when they were completely illegal.
Technically, they are all illegal, as there’s a law in sf banning all skateboards, weather in the street, on the sidewalk or any wheres other than a skate park. But again, I’ve had 2 tickets for skateboarding in the 4 years I’ve been here. Never for an eboard, though i’ve only used an eboard for 4 months now.
google “electric skateboard ticket in sf”, there’s a guy complaining about dick cop in the warf who gives tickets for electric skateboards, citing the law that bans all skateboards in sf.
I will be doing nothing different however. The odds of a ticket are so low that even if I get picked off once, it won’t happen for a while again as the odds are low.
I understand that there are cops who give tickets for invalid reasons, but the law that bans skateboards in most parts of sf clearly says it does not apply to motorized things. Its in the actual title of the law
Also, this is off topic, but I believe the regular non-motorized vehicle ban is supposed to technically allow you to skateboard in residential areas on sidewalks before sundown. The ban is for “business districts” + all roads.
I think your right, thank you for the clarification. I seriously spent over 2 hours reading that little bill on “electric motorized boards”, just to comprehend the lawyer language in the bill.
All the articles that came out and stories that were done are full of mis-information. Its funny, as most people who wrote these articles seem to have never read the bill, which is relatively short. I believe you can go 20 mph on your own property, as ones own property doesn’t seem to be in the 15 mph limit part.
Yea, I don’t know how well I am at comprehending the lawyer language either. I originally didn’t notice the 15mph part though so thanks for mentioning it.
Evohayax I live a block from golden gate park and have ridden my board past the park rangers that keep the cars out on Sundays many times. I’m sure he’s seen me doing at least 25mph as well. No problem. He’s not a cop though. I don’t know if you’re taking Fulton street to avoid the park still but I wouldn’t bother. The cops that have said something to me other times didn’t know what they were talking about in the end and I rode away. I really doubt anyone would give you a ticket. Tell them the esc has an amp limit if they’re even aware enough to count the batteries in series.
If anyone gets a ticket in Cali please post it.
Here’s another no-car day in the park:
