Two new startups — a third leader is based out of New York — have set up shop in San Francisco. The cofounders of Boosted Boards, thirty-something mechanical engineers from Stanford, won “backing from incubator program Y Combinator and startup accelerator StartX, as Inc. reported. ZBoard, founded by “two first-time entrepreneurs in their late 20s,” found backing through Highway1, a so-called hardware incubator. “The ZBoard is the result of a senior project at USC that grew into a 2012 Kickstarter campaign that launched the product,” as the LA Weekly observed.

New era, new law

Both companies were launched in 2012. But not until this year has California law adjusted to accommodate their innovations. Signing a bill this month advanced by Assembly Republican Leader Kristin Olsen, R-Riverbank, “allows the use of motorized wheeled devices, aimed at electric skateboards but which could be extended to other new contraptions, anywhere bicycles are allowed to go,” according to the Wall Street Journal. “The law, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2016, reverses a 1977 ban intended to keep noisy, stinky, gas-powered skateboards off the streets.” The bill was passed as AB604 by an overwhelming 32-1 vote in the Senate, CBS News noted.

Although some strictures remain, the new rules allowed broad new freedoms of movement. Riders 14 and older will be able “to ride electric skateboards in California bike lanes, bike paths, sidewalks, trails and roads where the speed limit is 35 miles per hour or less,” as the Weekly reported. The boards typically reach peak cruising speed of around 20 miles per hour.

Boosting an industry

Olsen took an early lead in promoting the change, sensing an opportunity for Sacramento Republicans to notch a legislative victory on a popular, forward-facing issue. “It’s a great, viable transportation option for those short commutes,” she told the Sacramento Bee in March, demonstrating her own skills on an electric board. “It just doesn’t make any sense to allow an industry to build in California, but not to grow roots here,” she said.

“She also promoted the job-creating possibilities of companies that make the electrically-motorized skateboards, introducing the founders of ZBoard, a start-up that manufactures its boards in Riverbank, to share their story.”