Save Bike-Share!

California Bike-Share Is Under Threat

If AB 371 passes, we won’t be able to expand shared micromobility programs to low-income communities that need them. We may have to cancel them. Bike share takes the worst hit. Mopeds get a benefit.

AB 371 could end bike-sharing in California

The California State Senate is considering a bill that will endanger bike and scooter sharing in California. It’s absolutely crucial to voice your opposition to your State Senator today.

The Kill Bike-Share Bill (AB 371) would require providers of shared bikes and scooters (whether a private company or a transit agency) to carry insurance to pay for injuries caused through no fault of their own, including by the rider’s own negligence. It’s unprecedented, and will drive up the costs of bike and scooter sharing so severely that many programs will have to be canceled and our hopes of expansion into low-income communities are dashed.

AB 371, prompted by concerns about scooters, includes shared bicycles, which are much safer than scooters, even safer than personal bikes. It excludes shared mopeds! The few cities that are willing to invest excessive sums into shared micromobility in order to have a more sustainable transportation system will have an incentive to implement scooters (because they’re cheaper) and mopeds (because the insurance requirement doesn’t apply), instead of bikes.

California should drastically expand bike-share, not hobble it with prohibitively expensive requirements.

AB 371 punishes shared scooters, punishes shared bikes worse, privileges shared mopeds, and will end up increasing driving and all of the harms associated with such an increase: increased injuries and fatalities from traffic crashes, reduced economic security for low-income people, and worse pollution in already burdened neighborhoods

AB 371 was amended in June 2022 to reduce the insurance requirement, but made no other changes that would prevent it from having a devastating impact on equitable mobility. Please take action today!

UPDATE: Senate Insurance Committee hearing is June 22.

4 reasons to save California bike-share

Bike sharing is transforming transportation in communities around the globe and across California. Our state deserves this valuable transit option. Here are just four of the many benefits of bike-share:

Bike sharing systems have reduced car traffic by millions of miles and promise even greater reductions in the future.
They are an essential last-mile link for public transit.
Where bike-share is subsidized like public transit (as it should be) it reduces inequality by providing an affordable transportation option for people who don’t have cars and rely on transit, walking, and biking for their trips.
Shared bikes are among the safest kinds of transportation: safer even than personal bikes statistically.