New ebike laws in California taking effect January 1, 2026

[Chargeride]

Its about 9 dollars a gallon here, we buy it by the litre, £1.45 a litre for diesel.

My van has a 1600cc diesel with turbo, but its in limp mode at the moment so Im doing 60 mpg on the motorways.

Its very light unloaded as well, so its got the footprint of an ordinary UK car.

All my friends vans except one are in limp mode, its hilarious.

 

[TPEHAK]

I really dislike flashing red lights on bicycles or pedestrians (runners wear these sometimes). I think it is harder for motorists to tell how far away a flashing light is and they are way more distracting to drivers than solid red lights and can cause impaired drivers to steer towards the cyclist. However, the law says red reflector or flashing red light. Most of the new laws will be enforced through the manufacturers and not directly on the street or bike trail. I know there has already been a lot of debate about them.

I use 2 bright flashing red lights on my backpack. I want to make sure the cars pay attention. Steady red light might not drag attention. It is safer to drag attention rather than not bein distracting. Sure flashing lights are annoying, but danger due to flashing light distraction factor is negligible, even better, it forces the people to slow down and take more care moving around the cyclists. The backpack also has reflective coating so the car drivers can estimate where I am rather than just seeing popping red lights out of nowhere in the dark.

 

[speedub.nate]

I made the assumption that the Europeans referenced good data to prohibit flashing rear lights. It aligned with my observations that flashing (strobing) lights at night, particularly obstructions lights on towers, are difficult to track in the periphery and might lead to driver fixation.

However after a brief search I didn't come up with a study to back that up, but I did come up with this one:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001457523004657

I'm not making the claim that this study is the be-all / end-all authority in this matter, but their findings suggest that "light is good, no light is bad, flashing doesn't hurt, and fancy or reactive flashing patterns don't seem to help."

My biggest criticism of this study is that is was conducted using video simulations of driving, and I'm not confident a video screen can accurately replicate the brightness of high intensity points of light that our current generation LEDs create.

My preference remains a flashing light in dusky daylight, and a combination of a flashing plus a steady at night, but I guess this study opens me up to flashing-only at night. There are enough cyclists at night where I am that I'll have to be more observant of this and how I process it while I'm driving. And there are absolutely too many unlighted cyclists and scooterists I come across to know that anything is better than nothing.

 

[MrHyak]

I am more frustrated at the lack of enforcement of the tinted windows in our state these days. The fact that I can't see most of the drivers now to know if they see me is dangerous, but the police don't seem to do much about dark tint, but want to force us to be a lighted christmas tree for the cars.

 

[speedub.nate]

I am more frustrated at the lack of enforcement of the tinted windows in our state these days. The fact that I can't see most of the drivers now to know if they see me is dangerous, but the police don't seem to do much about dark tint, but want to force us to be a lighted christmas tree for the cars.

But they don't.

The law is simply clarifying that the reflector, which is already required and has been forever, can also be a combination reflector / light. That's it. No Christmas tree.

I would also agree that dark tinted windows are dangerous, but "most of the drivers" is an exaggeration, and also that police are likely less interested in pulling a cyclist over for a reflector interaction versus a driver for a window tint infraction – an infraction that is potentially personally dangerous to their own well being.

 

[jabberwocky]

I bike commuted year round for over 12 years. Lots of night riding in the winter. My experience is that a bright, solid light works a lot better at preventing issues. Blinking lights are, IME, better at getting attention in marginal situations or where theres a lot of light pollution. But a bright solid light just seemed to register to cars as definitely a vehicle.

I actually think blinking lights suck at night. There are situations where they might make sense (urban areas with generally high ambient light where you just need to draw attention to yourself) but there is a reason that vehicles don't have blinking or flashing lights on them.

 

[Catalyzt]

I am more frustrated at the lack of enforcement of the tinted windows in our state these days. The fact that I can't see most of the drivers now to know if they see me is dangerous, but the police don't seem to do much about dark tint, but want to force us to be a lighted christmas tree for the cars.

I agree with Speedub that this is not a huge change, but the tinted windows are irritating here in Hollywood in terms of threat assessment, on a bike, walking the dogs, etc. I like to know who is driving around up here. I like to be able to see if someone makes eye contact and gives me a friendly wave, or if they're stopping and staring at garages that have their doors open, etc.

I bike commuted year round for over 12 years. Lots of night riding in the winter. My experience is that a bright, solid light works a lot better at preventing issues. Blinking lights are, IME, better at getting attention in marginal situations or where theres a lot of light pollution. But a bright solid light just seemed to register to cars as definitely a vehicle.

I actually think blinking lights suck at night. There are situations where they might make sense (urban areas with generally high ambient light where you just need to draw attention to yourself) but there is a reason that vehicles don't have blinking or flashing lights on them.

I kind of agree... though there are solutions. My helmet (which Stefan covets) has a rechargeable red light built into it which is a parallelogram and has several different modes. One of these modes, the brightest spot on the light moves around the parallelogram in a clockwise motion; it's way less annoying than a blinking light, but more visible than one that doesn't blink at all.

I'm mostly riding the Canyon Grizl: ON, which has always-on red lights that are sufficient for driving around the neighborhood. I turn on the helmet light in heavier traffic at night and also on lightly traveled gravel/broken pavement roads that are only open to pedestrians and cyclists. The reason for this is that there are, occasionally, folks on illegal electric motorcycle Surron-type bikes with pedals (that are misclassified as eBikes) that come down the road faster than I feel is safe.

@Chargeride, I used to have a friend in London who had a superbright headlight he used only on narrow roads when a road-hog driver was bearing down on him with THEIR brights on. He said he only used it in the most extreme situations, and it was so bright that drivers basically had to stop until he passed. I don't think I'd do that, but I couldn't bring myself to give him a hard time about it. He had a number of not-at-fault accidents w/ motorists, said it was incredibly dangerous riding in London, at least five or 10 years ago, anyway.

 

[mschwett]

I bike commuted year round for over 12 years. Lots of night riding in the winter. My experience is that a bright, solid light works a lot better at preventing issues. Blinking lights are, IME, better at getting attention in marginal situations or where theres a lot of light pollution. But a bright solid light just seemed to register to cars as definitely a vehicle.

I actually think blinking lights suck at night. There are situations where they might make sense (urban areas with generally high ambient light where you just need to draw attention to yourself) but there is a reason that vehicles don't have blinking or flashing lights on them.

except that in urban areas, with lots of visual distraction and light sources, vehicles people REALLY want you to see DO have blinking lights on them !

studies do show that flashing lights garner more attention - whether it's a meaningful amount is certainly debatable - but they also show that the most instantly identifiable "CYCLIST" signal to your brain is the up and down motion of the pedals, so for max visibility reflectors and/or lights on the pedals, shoes, or ankles are very helpful.

i don't ride outside of the city often at night so i've always been more concerned with bright, reflective colors, a bright light that flashes at cars who are closing too fast, and constant awareness. it's amazing how much you can tell about the intentions of a driver simply by the sound of the vehicle. people who drive big trucks in cities are almost ALWAYS inattentive or rude drivers, and the sound of a large truck accelerating behind you is very distinctive. a sports car can be equally loud, but sounds quite different and the driver is far more likely to a) also be a cyclist and b) take some pride in driving well and carefully, whether because it's a virtue or just because they don't want to ding their expensive car. prius drivers are quite likely ubers or lyfts, more interested in just getting places and making fares than anything else, likely to cut you off to do so if it saves them time but not inherently aggressive or likely to make a statement with a close pass the way a lifted truck driver is around here.

the very best vehicles on the road here are waymos, which can be absolutely guaranteed to yield to a bike in any circumstance, will never pass you with less than 3 feet, never speed, and always come to a full and complete stop. they also never get pissed off and can (literally) see you in the dark even if you're wearing all black with no lights. the real time radar/lidar view they show while en route is quite impressive.

 

[MrHyak]

I bike commuted year round for over 12 years. Lots of night riding in the winter. My experience is that a bright, solid light works a lot better at preventing issues. Blinking lights are, IME, better at getting attention in marginal situations or where theres a lot of light pollution. But a bright solid light just seemed to register to cars as definitely a vehicle.

I actually think blinking lights suck at night. There are situations where they might make sense (urban areas with generally high ambient light where you just need to draw attention to yourself) but there is a reason that vehicles don't have blinking or flashing lights on them.

You know what would get attention at night? A blinking BLUE light on your bike... I wonder how that would go over with the police?

 

[jabberwocky]

studies do show that flashing lights garner more attention - whether it's a meaningful amount is certainly debatable - but they also show that the most instantly identifiable "CYCLIST" signal to your brain is the up and down motion of the pedals, so for max visibility reflectors and/or lights on the pedals, shoes, or ankles are very helpful.

I actually think the big argument for the solid light is that it doesn't register specifically as "cyclist", it registers as "vehicle". My experience on completely unlit roads is that drivers would slow down, approach cautiously, and then pass much more carefully than with just a blinking a light. I think thats because they registered they were approaching a vehicle but were unsure what exactly I was, slowed down as they approached, realized I was a bike and then passed.

YMMV and all that. If you're going solid light, I would definitely do a very bright one. I ran a dinotte quad red for several years, which is a few hundred lumens but also has a very wide, diffuse beam. Love that light. I also ran a blinky as a backup (cygolite hotshot or PB superflash) but usually just ran the dinotte on solid low or medium. I had fewer issues at night than I did in the daytime.

The big drawback to blinking lights IME is they make it much harder to judge position and speed of what they are attached to. Thats less an issue when theres a lot of ambient light. They are also super annoying to follow on bike paths.