Electric Skateboards Now Street Legal In California

It’s a big victory for folks who like electric skateboards, it really is, California Governor Jerry Brown has signed a bill aiming to make electric skateboards street legal into law. With this new piece of legislation coming into effect people in California will be able to ride a skateboard in all of the places where it’s legal to ride bicycles starting January 2016. Local community officials will be able to ban electric skateboards at their discretion though, but nevertheless this is a win for electric skateboard fans.

The new legislation is actually reversing a ban placed back in 1977 against gas-powered boards and it does cover other motorized contraptions as long as they as they stick with zero emissions.

Skating is part of the culture of California and this new legislation will provide more incentive to skateboard companies to develop and sell electric skateboards. Startups like ZBoard and Boosted are already working in this arena, both companies also happen to be based in California.

Electric skateboards aren’t as cheap as conventional skateboards, for example a ZBoard can start at $600, but it’s possible that as electric skateboards start to become more common the prices might go down to enable more people to embrace the change.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Gadgets
Tags: skateboard