Daily Herald opinion: The safest path: Greater state guidelines needed for addressing e-bike issues

If there’s a topic most suburbanites agree on these days, it’s that something has to be done about e-bikes.

Everyone it seems has an anecdote about a near-miss with an electric bike or scooter on a neighborhood sidewalk or at the park. And a number of suburban towns have sought to address the problem by adopting age restrictions or banning higher-speed bikes, or all e-bikes, on village paths.

But as our Eric Peterson reported earlier this week, experts at a Northwest Municipal Conference summit on Monday said communities setting tougher rules need additional guidance from the state. The lack of standard definitions, coupled with newer and faster motorized e-vehicles, can confound riders, retailers and regulators.

Illinois has laws regulating electric bikes on the books. Riding on the sidewalk is prohibited, for example. And riders of Class 3 bikes — those that max out at 28 miles per hour vs. the 20 in other classes — must be at least 16.

But confusion abounds, spurred in part by those who don’t understand the differences between e-bikes and vehicles with more power. For example, a Mount Prospect teen was killed earlier this month when he crashed into a pickup truck in Arlington Heights. Originally described as an e-bike, the vehicle he was riding was actually what’s being called an e-moto, which has a more powerful motor -- and yet is not addressed in the Illinois Vehicle Code.

At the same time, the call for stronger regulations is building, leaving suburbs to act on their own.

Palatine, for example, restricts e-bikes to streets only — no paths or trails. Riders must be 15. In nearby Hoffman Estates, however, riders have to be 16. And that suburb prohibits Class 3 bicycles from village-owned paths.

Elk Grove Village, meanwhile, requires e-bike riders to have a driver’s license, and a few other suburbs have followed.

Other towns have weighed in as well, with some choosing to follow existing state law.

As Peterson reported, Ride Illinois has targeted the e-bike issue as its top priority for the 2026 legislative session.

“I think the state can really help solve this,” Dave Simmons, the group’s director, said. “Because these things are new, regulation always trails.”

Regulation may trail, but the power behind these bikes and the potential for tragedy are growing.

A state solution makes more sense than a scattered approach to a regional problem, one that leaves riders and parents to piece together what’s allowed and what’s not. A 14-year-old on an e-bike might be just fine zooming through one suburb, only to unknowingly run afoul of the law once he crosses the street into a more restrictive town.

E-bikes can offer a fun, fast, efficient and eco-friendly way to get around when used safely and within the law. But when they are not, they put all of us at risk.