Let the lowriders roll: Statewide ban on cruising lifted 

Car lovers and cruising clubs on the Eastside may have collectively let out a sigh of relief this New Year as a ban on lowriding ordinances went into effect on Jan. 1. 

Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 436 into law back in October, repealing the statewide ban on cruising statewide starting in 2024. California State Assemblymembers Luz Rivas and David Alvarez co-authored the bill. 

Eastside groups, like the nonprofit Cruising is Not a Crime, led the push to get cruising legalized across the state and to preserve the right of car fanatics to express themselves through riding their customized cars around streets like Whittier Blvd. and César Chávez Ave. 

“It was a whole process for it to get to the governor’s desk. And it took a lot of patience. St was a great deal of relief and victory,” said Lorraine Quiñones, president of Cruising is Not a Crime.

After World War II, the lowriding culture began to grow around Southern California as an alternative to American hotrod culture, groups of mechanics and racing lovers who’d modify their cars to boost performance and speed. Although lowriders also symbolize expression through engineering, most lowriders focus on cruising down popular city streets, showing off their elaborate rides. 

But in 1988, cruising ordinances were enacted, giving municipalities across the Golden State the power to enforce the activity. Many considered the laws an excuse for law enforcement to profile communities of color where cruising was more popular. 

Quiñones, who drives a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air with her husband, said that historically, California Highway Patrol or the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department would regularly close off stretches of Whittier Blvd., a thoroughfare that is popular with cruisers and a main artery of the East LA cruising culture. 

After seeing the street closures happen more frequently, Quiñones began looking into the laws that banned cruising and organizing as a community member against an ordinance she called discriminatory. 

“There were not often citations for cruising given. They would use that to then find other things that they might cite a lowrider for,” Quiñones said. “Like if they had modifications like hydraulics or if they don’t have a certain light bulb over their license plate or something hanging from the rearview mirror.”

Although AB 436 protects cruising and lowriding, the law doesn’t allow car-lovers to trigger hydraulics or do burnouts in the street. 

Chato Ranflas, 48, is part of the Zoot Suit Riot Memorial Cruise, a local car club based in Los Angeles, and has been a part of the general cruising community since he was a toddler. He missed the Whittier Blvd. cruise on January 1, but attended a cruise along the boulevard on January 7. He sensed a slight change in the energy at the event. 

“It was a little bit more mellow. People were respecting the law and the officers were not getting on anybody’s case,” Ranflas said. 

Ranflas mentioned that as long as folks who were cruising were respecting the law and keeping the community around them safe, he hoped cruising would bring more positives to the community. 

Quiñones attributes the passing of AB 436 to the work car and cruising clubs statewide did over the last two years to push this onto the governor’s desk. But Quiñones acknowledges that the Eastside community fought especially hard to change the status quo. 

“East L.A. is the fountainhead of lowrider culture, which includes Boyle Heights, you know. El Sereno, Lincoln Park, all these areas around here are East Los Angeles,” Quiñones said. “East Los made history.”