California Has the Tools to Stop Super Speeders. AB 2276 Would Finally Use Them.
Most drivers slow down after a ticket; “super speeders” don’t. They’re the drivers caught going 30, 40, 50 miles per hour over the limit, often repeatedly, on roads shared with people walking, biking, and living their lives. California has fined them, given them points, and suspended their licenses. It has not been enough to dissuade or deter these super speeders.
A new bill working its way through Sacramento wants to try something different: make it physically harder to speed. CalBike supports the Stop Super Speeders Act (AB 2276), introduced by Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria (D-Merced) and sponsored by Families for Safe Streets. It would create a statewide pilot program allowing courts to require the worst speeding offenders to install active intelligent speed assistance (ISA) devices in their vehicles as a condition of getting their driving privileges back. These aren’t warning systems as they are traditionally understood; ISA technology uses GPS and real-time digital maps to actively prevent a vehicle from exceeding the posted speed limit.
Why Traditional Penalties Keep Failing
Speed is a central variable in traffic violence – the physics are as predictable as they are unforgiving. A person struck at 40 mph is far less likely to survive than one struck at 25 mph. Yet California’s enforcement toolkit has long relied on consequences that arrive after the crash, not before it. Fines are paid and forgotten; license suspensions are served and ignored. For the most reckless drivers, the pattern repeats.
AB 2276 targets a specific population: drivers convicted of reckless driving or extreme speeding who want to get back on the road. For them, an ISA device would be a condition of return. Courts would set the duration based on offense history and severity. Low-income drivers would have access to income-based fee assistance so costs are not disproportionate burdens.
An Idea With Momentum
This is not a radical or novel experiment; other states have already taken on this challenge.
The District of Columbia moved first with an ISA program in 2024 requiring drivers convicted of aggravated reckless driving, defined as traveling 30 miles per hour or more over the posted speed limit, to install speed-limiting devices in every vehicle they own or register. Participants must remain in the program for one to three years depending on repeat offenses, similar to the ignition interlock devices required after a DUI.
Neighboring Virginia passed legislation allowing judges to order speed-limiting devices for reckless driving convictions, effective July 2026. After fatal crashes involving speeding drivers jumped nearly 40 percent between 2019 and 2023, Washington State adopted a new approach: beginning in January 2029, drivers whose licenses are suspended for reckless speeding may return to the road only if they install an ISA device.
Connecticut, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Hawaii are all evaluating or introducing similar measures. At some point, a government that claims to value safety has to move beyond warnings and fines and actually change the conditions that allow dangerous behavior to continue.
What This Means for People on Bikes
People biking are among those most exposed to the lethal consequences of extreme speeding. There is no crumple zone, no airbag, no steel frame between a person on a bike and a driver doing 70 in a 35. The crashes that kill and maim people biking are rarely random. They tend to involve speed, recklessness, and drivers whose records already showed the warning signs.
A tool that physically prevents the worst offenders from reaching deadly speeds is not a niche traffic enforcement issue. It is a safety intervention with direct consequences for everyone who uses California’s streets without a car around them.
What Comes Next
AB 2276 has been referred to policy committees and will move through the legislative process this spring. CalBike will be supporting its progress and keeping members informed as the bill advances. The question California has to answer is not whether speed kills. That is settled. The question is whether the state is willing to use the tools available to stop the most excessive drivers.
