A bicyclist hit-and-run on a bike path is now a crime, as new laws come into play

The new year is ushering in additional traffic laws, with one making it a crime for a bicyclist to hit someone on a bike path and flee, and another making it more costly for vehicle owners to modify their mufflers just to make them roar.

Some of the changes are applauded by local law enforcement – but not all.

Here’s a close look at four new laws that take effect on New Year’s Day:

Hit-and-run on bike paths

A bicyclist who strikes a pedestrian on a bike path causing injuries or death will now have to stay put, helping the injured person if possible and waiting for police. Fleeing could bring criminal charges, much like those a hit-and run motorist faces.

Officer Ian Hoey, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol based in Sacramento, said state law already covered such bicycle incidents on public roads. This new law was prompted by a June 13, 2017 collision involving a bicyclist and a pedestrian on the levee above the American River Parkway in Sacramento.

Bill Finkbeiner, then 61, and friends were walking along when he was struck by bicyclist, falling face first. He suffered a fractured skull, a broken nose, facial fractures, a broken left hand and a broken left thumb, Finkbeiner recalled last week, in addition to having two teeth knocked out and the back of both hands torn up.

“I think my head landed half on asphalt, half on gravel,” Finkbeiner said. “(But) it wasn’t a crime to accidentally hit somebody and leave.”

Former Assemblyman Marc Steinorth, R-Rancho Cucamonga, who wrote the bill, said the Sacramento case caught everyone’s attention because it was so egregious. If a bicyclist causes a hit-and-run accident, he or she should be held accountable, the former assemblyman added.

The bicyclist, who authorities later found, was not arrested or charged. The case was closed with no criminal filing because hit-and-run did not apply in this case, said Ken Casparis, a spokesman for Sacramento County Regional Parks, and the new law would not have changed that.

“The new law applies to Class I bikeways,” he said, referring to bikeways just for bicycles and pedestrians. “The incident in question occurred on the top of a levee.”

Finkbeiner, though, figured the law would have indeed covered his case, and either way it does narrow the gap.

Updating the bicycle helmet law

Anyone under 18 was already required to wear a helmet if riding a bicycle, a scooter or a skateboard or tooling about on roller skates in California.

Otherwise, they could have faced a citation, with the $25 fine, paid by the parent or guardian, sometimes swelling to nearly $200 in some areas.

Now, the violation becomes a so-called fix-it ticket: The fine will disappear if the police see that the child has a proper helmet and has completed a bicycle-safety course.

“The desire is to make kids safe and not put an unnecessary burden on parents with fines,” said Sgt. Robert Hill of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Traffic Safety Operations. “We want to make sure you grow up to be an adult and have your own kids.”

After the original 1993 bicycle-helmet law went into effect, and various groups and police agencies spread the word, the usage of bicycle helmets by youths went from below 10 percent to more than 60 percent in many communities, according to the California Coalition for Children’s Safety and Health.

But, the coalition says, police don’t seem to be writing many citations (The California Highway Patrol, which patrols freeways, state highways and other stretches, issued only about 100 such citations in 2016, according to an analysis of the Assembly bill by Eric Thronson, the chief consultant for the panel’s Committee on Transportation).

Perhaps the downturn is because officers didn’t want to burden parents with big bills.

No matter the reason, Hill, the sheriff’s sergeant, said he thinks enforcement will now increase, with children getting bicycle helmets without parents getting slammed with financial burdens.

No helmets for adults on electric scooters

Amid the explosion of popularity of scooters rented out by companies such as Bird and Lime, a new law comes along to set legal guidelines.

Adults can now ride an electric scooter without a helmet, although minors must still don one.

Also, cities can now choose to allow riders to go on streets with speed limits up to 35 mph, making many more streets available to scooters than before. Before, riders could only travel along streets with posted limits of more than 25 if in a bike lane.

However, the scooters can’t go faster than 15 mph on those roads.

Bird, a dockless electric scooter company that sponsored the bill, argued that the state law that all must wear helmets when riding electric scooters makes the use of scooters inconvenient and discourages it as an alternative mode of transportation.

“The helmet law is particularly problematic for the dockless electric scooter companies, who want consumers to be able to pick up one of their scooters and go, and to not have to worry about getting ticketed for not wearing a helmet, similar to how it is for the dockless bicycle companies,” says an analysis of the bill by the Legislature’s staff. “This bill brings the helmet law for motorized scooters into parity with the helmet law for bicycles.”

It added that Bird and similar companies highly recommend the use of helmets on their scooters, and some even offer riders free use of them.

Sgt. Daron Wyatt, spokesman for Anaheim’s police and fire departments, said the new law does not change the safety implications.

“Just because the law doesn’t mandate the use of a helmet doesn’t mean you should throw safety to the wind,” the sergeant said. “We always encourage minors and adults alike to wear helmets when riding bicycles, skateboards, scooters, etc.”

Detective Greg Matthews with the Riverside Police Department’s Traffic Bureau said the new law opens more California roads to electric scooter riders, where they’ll be exposed to even faster traffic.

“In a state that requires motorcyclists to wear a helmet, it’s puzzling to see that same requirement stripped from motorized scooter riders operating on the same streets,” he said.

Neither the bill’s author, Assemblyman Heath Flora, R-Ripon, nor his staff returned a call for comment.

No more fix-it tickets for noisy mufflers

Fix-it tickets can no longer be issued to owners of cars, trucks and motorcycles with mufflers modified to increase noise or with exhaust systems that make unusual or excessive noise.

Now, the penalty is a full-blown citation.

Matthews, the Riverside traffic detective, said when he worked as a collision investigator loud exhaust systems were the most common repeat offender he encountered.

“Motorists who had modified their vehicle’s exhaust systems would fix the problem before going to court and have the citation signed off – only out $10 for the processing fee,” he said. “As soon as they made it home from court, they’d wrench off the legal parts and re-install the illegal equipment.”

He said this new law will encourage people to follow the law – because violators face a mandatory impact on their wallets.