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Soon You Can Ride Electric Skateboards Legally
Even pups will be allowed to ride electric skateboards (via ZBoard/Facebook)
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Get ready to grab your boards: a long-forgotten, decades-old ban on electrically-motorized skateboards has just been reversed.
This week, Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill, AB 604, which will allow people age 13 and older to ride electric skateboards anywhere that bicycles are allowed in California, reports CBS LA. Chances are, you've probably seen people cruising around on the motorized boards for a while now, but the bill actually overturns a 1977 state ban that was designed to keep people from riding loud, gas-powered motorized boards. The law will take effect on Jan. 1, 2016, and will allow riders to use them in bicycle lanes, pathways and roadways.
While we may not have hoverboards yet, electric skateboards these days are much cleaner and quieter than their clunky '70s predecessors. And while the reversed ban is designed to enable the boards to silently roll anywhere a bike does, individual cities can still decide for themselves whether to allow them.
Assembly Republican Leader Kristin Olsen, the author of the bill, tells CBS LA, “This legislation has been carefully crafted over the past two years to ensure the safety of riders and to provide communities the flexibility to regulate boards to meet their needs.” She also sees the reversal as a way to encourage more companies—like Hermosa Beach-based ZBoard—to develop the technology in California. Though, we can't say for certain if Olsen has done any shredding on an electric board herself.
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