E-Bike Laws in Long Beach, California
Long Beach currently prohibits bicycle riding on business-district sidewalks, bridge sidewalks, and near schools, churches, recreation centers, playgrounds and senior facilities, and in specified waterfront areas including the Boardwalk and Bay Shore Walk (LBMC § 10.48.070(A)). The Beach Path carries a posted 20 mph limit. An e-bike- specific ordinance is still pending: the Council agreed in May 2026 to draft a Class 3 sidewalk ban but scaled back the proposed multi-use path ban, agreeing to reconsider in six months.
Whether the Class 3 sidewalk ordinance was finally adopted between May 2026 and this page's verification date could not be confirmed. Treat the Class 3 rules as pending. Separately: searches for "Long Beach e-bike boardwalk ban" surface coverage of Long Beach, New York, which has its own unrelated ordinance. Do not conflate the two.
The rules, line by line
| Subject | Rule | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Sidewalks | Bicycle riding prohibited on sidewalks in business districts, on bridge sidewalks, and near schools, churches, recreation centers, playgrounds and senior facilities — and in specified waterfront areas including the Boardwalk and Bay Shore Walk. Sidewalk riders must yield to any pedestrian. | LBMC § 10.48.070(A) |
| Beach bike paths (e-scooters) | E-scooters prohibited on beach bike paths and marina and sidewalk areas adjacent to beaches. This section reaches e-scooters only — not e-bikes. | LBMC § 10.38.020 |
| Beach Path speed limit | 20 mph for bicycles including e-bikes, posted via permanent signage. | no citation locatedCitation unconfirmed |
| Class 3 on sidewalks and paths | Proposed, not adopted. Council agreed May 14, 2026 to draft a Class 3 sidewalk ban, but scaled back the proposed ban on the shoreline, LA River and San Gabriel River paths, agreeing to revisit in six months. | proposed amendment to LBMC § 10.48.070Citation unconfirmed |
| E-bikes within the definition of "bicycle" | Proposed, not adopted. Would amend the definitions section to bring electric bicycles within "bicycle." | proposed amendment to LBMC § 10.48.010Citation unconfirmed |
| Lincoln Park riding ban | Proposed for deletion as outdated — a loosening, not a tightening. | LBMC § 10.48.110 |
A city that declined to go as far as staff recommended
The Long Beach process is worth following because it shows a council actively rejecting the most restrictive option.
The timeline: Council direction on October 21, 2025 → interim update December 19, 2025 → a City Manager status memo to the Mayor and Council on April 7, 2026 → recommendations to Council in May 2026.
On May 14, 2026, the Council agreed to draft the Class 3 sidewalk ban — and declined the multi-use path ban that staff had recommended for the shoreline path and the LA River and San Gabriel River paths, agreeing to reconsider in six months. Councilmember Megan Kerr: "I hesitate to go to the most restrictive in this moment."
The rejected element matters. Those three paths are the backbone of car-free travel in the city. A Class 3 ban on them would have pushed commuters onto arterial streets — the same argument e-bike business operators made successfully against Riverside's proposed Santa Ana River Trail ban.
Long Beach is also repealing something
Buried in the same package is a proposal to delete LBMC § 10.48.110 — the existing prohibition
on riding in Lincoln Park and the former Civic Center Plaza — as "outdated."
Worth noting because the prevailing narrative is uniform tightening. Several California cities have moved the other way: Santa Monica affirmatively permitted Class 1 and 2 onto the Marvin Braude trail in 2022, Newport Beach expanded its sidewalk-cycling-allowed map in 2025, East Bay Regional Parks opened roughly 850 miles of trail to Class 1 in 2023, and Imperial Beach is striking its bicycle licensing requirement.
The current gap
Until the amendments pass, Long Beach has a definitional problem similar to Los Angeles's.
LBMC § 10.48.070 addresses "bicycles." LBMC § 10.38.020 — the section that prohibits devices from
beach bike paths — reaches e-scooters only and does not mention e-bikes. The proposed amendment
to § 10.48.010 exists precisely to bring e-bikes within the definition of "bicycle," which implies
they are not clearly within it now.
Also in motion
Long Beach has several non-ordinance workstreams running: a centralised e-bike safety website, Office of Traffic Safety and Active Transportation Program grant applications, a diversion program (currently unfunded), and an E-Bike Safety Collaborative. Separately, the city runs an e-scooter pilot on the Shoreline Bike Path under its Shared Micromobility Program Regulations, updated August 2026 — that is scooters, not e-bikes.
Common questions
Can you ride an e-bike on the Long Beach boardwalk?
No. LBMC § 10.48.070(A) prohibits bicycle riding in specified waterfront areas including the Boardwalk and Bay Shore Walk. Note that a separate section, § 10.38.020, prohibits e-scooters from beach bike paths but does not reach e-bikes — the Beach Path itself is open to bikes and e-bikes at a posted 20 mph.
Are Class 3 e-bikes banned from sidewalks in Long Beach?
Not yet. The Council agreed on May 14, 2026 to draft an ordinance that would do this, but adoption could not be confirmed as of this page's verification date. The Council also declined staff's recommendation to ban Class 3 from the shoreline, LA River and San Gabriel River paths, agreeing to revisit that in six months.
What is the speed limit on the Long Beach beach bike path?
20 mph, posted via permanent signage, applying to bicycles including e-bikes. That is the highest path speed limit documented in this survey — for comparison, most Bay Area regional trails are 15 mph and several beach-city walkways are 8 to 12 mph.