The Newport Beach Police Department uses a multi-pronged approach to address the community’s needs regarding E-bikes. We provide enforcement alongside education, targeting the most vulnerable riders within our communities: children.

Our officers create numerous opportunities for students, parents, and concerned community members to come together and learn the rules and safe practices for riding a bicycle or E-bike within the city.  In the first two years of this program alone (2021-2023), our presentations reached over 7,500 community members.  Some of the most productive meetings have been held in collaboration with the Newport Mesa Unified School District (NMUSD), Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs), and Home Owners Associations (HOAs) throughout the city, including:

• Corona Del Mar High School and Middle School
• Our Lady Queen of Angels
• Mariners Elementary School
• Ensign Middle School
• Lincoln Elementary School
• Newport Elementary School
• Harbor View HOA
• Dover Shores HOA
• YMCA Newport Beach

The Newport Beach Police Department understands the importance of bike and E-bike safety and continues our commitment to encourage safe and lawful riding.  We encourage members of the public to keep an eye on our Announcements section to see when bike safety presentations are scheduled.

In addition to the educational presentations discussed in the previous section, we also provide a variety of services to enhance the safety of everyone on the road.  Our motor officers routinely patrol the city to monitor the use of our roadways, providing information and enforcement as needed.  We also conduct “high visibility enforcement” operations, targeting locations that raise concerns and complaints from our community members or where there is an elevated use of bikes/e-bikes, such as the areas around our schools and the boardwalk on the Balboa Peninsula.

We also apply for--and receive--grant funds from the State of California specifically for bicycle and pedestrian safety.  These funds are used for special operations and to provide safety equipment such as helmets and bike lights to our community. We have distributed bike safety equipment through various department-sponsored events, such as our Mobile Café.

• Brakes
• Tires
• Reflectors
• Lights
• Saddle/seat
• Handlebars
• Pedals and crank
• Chain
• Gears
• Frame and Forks
• Wheels
• Bicycle Lock

• Bicyclists share the road with cars, trucks, motorcycles, pedestrians, and other cyclists.
• Over 40,000 bicyclists were injured in traffic each year over the past ten years.
• Approximately 700-800 fatal bicycle accidents occur each year.  Of those, 80-95 percent were not wearing helmets.

Source: California Vehicle Code, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and www.helmets.org.

More facts and information on helmet use can be found at www.helmets.org.

Do

• Be predictable when riding
• Wear a helmet and eye protection
• Wear bright-colored clothing
• Carry identification
• Obey all traffic laws
• Ride with traffic
• Ride in the bicycle lane (whenever possible)
• Ride to the furthest right as can safely be done (when traveling at a lower speed than automobile traffic)
• Use hand signals
• Use a front head lamp and red tail lamp at night
• Maintain and clean your bicycle often

Don't

• Ride too fast for conditions
• Ride if you have consumed alcoholic beverages
• Ride on the sidewalk
• Use a cell phone while riding
• Wear headphones while riding
• Ride on public piers

• Be a "Roll Model"
• Deciding who rides with your child
• Deciding where your child can ride
• Distractions can be deadly
• Sharing the road: same roads, same rules, same rights
• High-risk bicycling situations for children
• Quick tips for bike safety

Bicycle Safety - A Parent's Guide

Bicycle Rider's Safety Contract

The California Highway Patrol and the Newport Beach Police Department have collaborated through AB1946 to provide the public with information regarding safe E-bike riding. You can use this interactive test and educational portal or find additional safety information from the California Highway Patrol here.

Effective January 2026, Newport Beach Municipal Code 12.56.060 requires all riders of e-bikes and other motorized wheeled conveyances to operate safely on public streets, sidewalks, and in public parks. Riders must travel at reasonable speeds, obey traffic signs and signals, yield to pedestrians and vehicles when required, use bicycle lanes when posted, and wear a properly fitted helmet if under 18. Unsafe behaviors such as riding against traffic, weaving through pedestrians, riding distracted or without lights at night, carrying passengers not designed for the device, performing wheelies, or disobeying traffic controls are prohibited.

Violations may result in enforcement action including citations, fines, and possible impoundment of the e-bike. First-time juvenile offenders may be eligible for the City’s E-Bike Diversion Program, which focuses on education, safe riding practices, and understanding traffic laws. Successful completion of the diversion program may result in dismissal of the citation and waiver of penalties.

See the chart below for an explanation of the three classes of E-bikes and how they compare to bicycles and mopeds. 

	VEHICLE SPECS		USER REQUIREMENTS
VEHICLE TYPE	PEDAL OPERATED	MAXIMUM MOTOR-ASSISTED SPEED (MPH)	MINIMUM AGE (YEARS)	DRIVER'S LICENSE	LICENSE PLATE	HELMET
BICYCLE	YES	N/A	N/A	NO	NO	17 & UNDER
TYPE 1 E-BIKE	YES	20	N/A	NO	NO	17 & UNDER
TYPE 2 E-BIKE	NO	20	N/A	NO	NO	17 & UNDER
TYPE 3 E-BIKE	YES	28	16	YES	YES	YES
MOPED	NO	N/A	16	YES	YES	YES

A motorcycle is any motorized two-wheel vehicle, gas or electric, with or without pedals, that can go over 30 MPH.

A motorcycle requires the following to operate on the road:

• Driver's license with motorcycle endorsement
• DMV registration and license plates
• Turn signals, mirrors, road tires
• Vehicle insurance

If a motorcycle is driven on the street without a proper license or registration, it is subject to a 30-day impound.

Yes, per the California Vehicle Code section 21212(a), all bike riders under the age of 18 must wear a helmet while riding a bike. However, when riding a Class 3 E-bike, all riders must wear a helmet regardless of their age.

• A red reflector or solid or flashing red light with a built-in reflector on the rear of the bike that is visible from a distance of 500 feet when in front of headlights on a motor vehicle.

• A white or yellow reflector on each pedal, shoe, or ankle that is visible from both the front and rear of the bicycle at a distance of 200 feet.

• A white or yellow reflector on each side of the bicycle on the forward portion of the bicycle and a white or red reflector on each side of the bicycle on the rear portion of the bicycle, unless the bicycle has forward and rear reflective tires, in which cases the side reflectors are unnecessary.

Bicycles must be equipped with a brake that allows an operator to execute a one-braked-wheel skid on dry, level, clean pavement. California Vehicle Code Section 21201(a)

The California Vehicle Code mandates riders to ride in the same direction as traffic. People often think riding towards traffic is safer because they can see traffic coming towards them. This notion is incorrect. Here are two visual aids to show why it is actually more dangerous to ride against traffic. This is the type of bike collision that is most frequently seen by our motor officers.

All riders must have a permanent, regular seat unless the bicycle is designed by the manufacturer to be ridden without a seat. Bicycle passengers weighing less than 40 lbs. must have a seat that retains them in place and protects them from moving parts. California Vehicle Code Section 21204

Sharrows are roadway stencils used to identify streets that are to be shared by vehicles and bicycles.

Sharrows are also intended to alert drivers of the presence of bicyclists in the roadway and encourage caution.  The benefits of the use of sharrows are to:

• Assist bicyclists with positioning in a shared lane with on-street parallel parking, in order to reduce the chance of a bicyclist’s impacting the open door of a parked vehicle.
• Assist bicyclists with positioning in lanes that are too narrow for a motor vehicle and a bicycle to travel side by side within the same traffic lane.
• Alert road users that bicyclists are likely to occupy the same lane.
• Encourage safe passing of bicyclists by motorists.
• Reduce the incidence of wrong-way bicycling.

There are certain exceptions in the California Vehicle Code that allow bicyclists to take an entire lane of travel whether sharrows are present or not.

California Vehicle Code: 21202(a)

Any person operating a bicycle upon a roadway at a speed less than the normal speed of traffic moving in the same direction at that time shall ride as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway except under any of the following situations:

• When overtaking and passing another bicycle or vehicle proceeding in the same direction.
• When preparing for a left turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.
• When reasonably necessary to avoid conditions (including, but not limited to, fixed or moving objects, vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, animals, surface hazards, or substandard width lanes) that make it unsafe to continue along the right-hand curb or edge, subject to the provisions of Section 21656. For purposes of this section, a "substandard width lane" is a lane that is too narrow for a bicycle and a vehicle to travel safely side by side within the lane.
• When approaching a place where a right turn is authorized.

The presence of sharrows does not absolve bicyclists from their responsibility to operate their bicycles safely and within the confines of the Vehicle Code. Violations related to stopping at posted stop signs, stopping for red lights at signal controlled intersections, etc. are enforced and are unaffected by the presence of sharrows.

The goal of the Newport Beach Police Department is to help promote the safety of bicyclists using the roadways, and to encourage cooperation and sharing of the roadways between bicycle and motor vehicle traffic.