Legislation: batch E — CA TN VA VT WA WI WV WY

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

legislation/us/states/ca/20252026/ab-544.md

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+---
+type: "Bill"
+title: "Electric bicycles: required equipment."
+description: "(1) Existing law requires a bicycle operated during darkness on a highway, sidewalk, or bikeway to be equipped with, among other things, a red reflector or a solid or flashing red light with a built-in reflector on the rear that is visible from a distance of 500 feet to the rear when directly in front of lawful upper beams of headlamps on a motor vehicle. Existing law defines \"bicycle\" for these purposes to, among other things, include an electric bicycle. Existing law defines an electric bicycle as a bicycle equipped with fully operable pedals and an electric motor that does not exceed 750 watts of power and categorizes electric bicycles into 3 classes. A violation of the provisions relating to the requirements for equipping a bicycle or an electric bicycle is punishable as an infraction."
+jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
+legislature: "California Legislature"
+session: "20252026"
+identifier: "AB 544"
+citation: "California AB 544 (20252026)"
+classification: ["bill"]
+subjects: ["Electricbicycles", "requiredequipment"]
+status: "enacted"
+primary_sponsors: ["Davies"]
+version_count: 6
+action_count: 23
+vote_count: 5
+first_action: "2025-02-11"
+last_action: "2025-07-14"
+source: "openstates"
+source_identifier: "ocd-bill/2e7e7cb7-88c8-474f-81fc-fd94ecea27c1"
+source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB544"
+source_hash: "de33c50d6da5b0e14f49ccd290040cbe544f0c7d5d039ce3405c3405398d5dcb"
+vintage: "2026-07-01"
+source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
+retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
+confidence: "reported"
+tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
+---
+
+# California AB 544 (20252026) — Electric bicycles: required equipment.
+
+(1) Existing law requires a bicycle operated during darkness on a highway, sidewalk, or bikeway to be equipped with, among other things, a red reflector or a solid or flashing red light with a built-in reflector on the rear that is visible from a distance of 500 feet to the rear when directly in front of lawful upper beams of headlamps on a motor vehicle. Existing law defines "bicycle" for these purposes to, among other things, include an electric bicycle. Existing law defines an electric bicycle as a bicycle equipped with fully operable pedals and an electric motor that does not exceed 750 watts of power and categorizes electric bicycles into 3 classes. A violation of the provisions relating to the requirements for equipping a bicycle or an electric bicycle is punishable as an infraction.
+
+## Version chain
+
+The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.
+
+1. **02/11/25 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB544&version=20250AB54499INT)
+2. **03/05/25 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB544&version=20250AB54498AMD)
+3. **03/24/25 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB544&version=20250AB54497AMD)
+4. **07/14/25 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB544&version=20250AB54495CHP)
+5. **AB544** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB544)
+6. **07/08/25 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB544&version=20250AB54496ENR)
+
+## Votes
+
+- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **13–0** (pass) · upper
+- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **16–0** (pass) · lower
+- AB 544 Davies Consent Calendar Second Day — **69–0** (pass) · lower
+- Consent Calendar 2nd — **35–0** (pass) · upper
+- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **14–0** (pass) · lower
+
+## Sponsors
+
+- Davies — primary (person)
+
+## Timeline
+
+The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.
+
+- **2025-02-11** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
+- **2025-02-12** From printer. May be heard in committee March 14.
+- **2025-02-24** Referred to Com. on TRANS. `referral-committee`
+- **2025-03-05** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on TRANS. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
+- **2025-03-06** Re-referred to Com. on TRANS. `referral-committee`
+- **2025-03-19** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
+- **2025-03-24** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on TRANS. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
+- **2025-03-25** Re-referred to Com. on TRANS. `referral-committee`
+- **2025-04-08** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 16. Noes 0.) (April 7). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
+- **2025-04-30** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 14. Noes 0.) (April 30). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
+- **2025-05-01** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
+- **2025-05-08** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 69. Noes 0. Page 1485.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
+- **2025-05-08** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
+- **2025-05-21** Referred to Com. on TRANS. `referral-committee`
+- **2025-06-10** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 13. Noes 0.) (June 10). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
+- **2025-06-19** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
+- **2025-06-30** From committee: Be ordered to second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8 and ordered to Consent Calendar. `committee-passage, reading-2`
+- **2025-07-01** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
+- **2025-07-03** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 35. Noes 0. Page 1932.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
+- **2025-07-03** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
+- **2025-07-11** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 11 a.m.
+- **2025-07-14** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
+- **2025-07-14** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 36, Statutes of 2025. `became-law`
+
+## Source
+
+OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/2e7e7cb7-88c8-474f-81fc-fd94ecea27c1`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).
+