Existing law prohibits a person from driving, moving, or leaving standing upon a highway, or in an offstreet public parking facility, any motor vehicle, trailer, semitrailer, pole or pipe dolly, or logging dolly, unless it is registered and the appropriate fees have been paid, except as specified. Existing law requires the Department of Motor Vehicles, upon registering a vehicle, to issue to the owner license plates that identify the vehicles for which they are issued for the period of their validity, as specified. Existing law also requires a motorized bicycle to display a special license plate issued by the department.

Existing law authorizes a city or county to adopt a bicycle licensing ordinance or resolution, authorizes the licensing agency, by ordinance or resolution, to adopt rules and regulations for the collection of license fees, as specified, and sets the fee for each new bicycle license and registration certificate at a sum of no more than $4 per year.

Existing law defines an electric bicycle as a bicycle equipped with fully operable pedals and an electric motor of less than 750 watts, and classifies electric bicycles into 3 classes with different restrictions.

The bill would create the Electric Bicycle Registration Fund in the State Treasury, require all moneys received by the department pursuant to these provisions to be deposited in the fund, and require all moneys in the fund to be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the department for the administration of these provisions. The bill would also appropriate an unspecified sum of moneys from the General Fund to the Electric Bicycle Registration Fund as a loan for purposes of administering these provisions, as specified.