New bills working their way through Sacramento would require license plates for Class 2 and Class 3 e-bikes and lower the peak speeds on models that kids under 16 can ride. Because apparently, the state that can't keep its budget balanced or its streets clean has bandwidth to create an entirely new registration bureaucracy — for bicycles.

Let's be clear about what's happening here. E-bikes have been one of the genuine urban transportation success stories of the last decade. They get people out of cars, reduce congestion, and — in a city like San Francisco where hills are basically a personality trait — they've made bike commuting accessible to people who otherwise wouldn't consider it. They're a market-driven solution to a real problem. Naturally, the government wants to get involved.

The child safety argument has some merit on its surface. There have been legitimate concerns about teenagers ripping through neighborhoods on souped-up e-bikes at 28 mph. Fair enough. But speed caps for minors could be handled through manufacturing standards and point-of-sale requirements without building out an entire DMV-style licensing apparatus for every adult who rides one.

Because that's the real issue here: license plates mean registration systems, which mean fees, which mean enforcement infrastructure, which mean more government overhead paid for by — you guessed it — you. Has anyone in Sacramento done a cost-benefit analysis on what it takes to administer a license plate program for millions of e-bikes versus what it actually accomplishes? We're guessing no.

The pattern is painfully familiar. An emerging technology improves people's lives. A handful of bad actors create problems. And instead of targeted, proportional responses, legislators reach for the broadest possible regulatory hammer because it lets them look like they're Doing Something.

E-bikes don't need license plates. They need lawmakers who resist the urge to bureaucratize everything that moves.