California Bike-Share Is Under Threat
If AB 371 passes, it could end bike and scooter sharing systems everywhere 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 assume liability for damage and injury caused through no fault of their own, including by the rider’s own negligence. It would apply to public, nonprofit, and private shared micromobility operators, including programs funded by the State of California.
No other service provider of any service is required to have insurance for the damage caused solely by the users of their product! Shared bikes have an incredible safety record and are incredibly important to the expansion of equitable and clean mobility options.
AB 371, the Kill Bike-Share Bill, will make our streets less safe by ending shared micromobility or making it prohibitively expensive before California has a chance to fully experience its benefits.
California should drastically expand bike-share, not hobble it with prohibitively expensive requirements.
If you’re thinking that you’ve heard about this bill before, that’s because you have. CalBike helped defeat a bill with a similar insurance provision in 2020 and we helped to stop AB 371 in the 2021 legislative session. But the measure became a 2-year bill, which allows it to continue toward passage in 2022.
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:
Let’s stop AB 371 before it kills California bike-share or makes it too expensive for the people who need it the most.