The road ahead: Suburban leaders look to improve e-bike interactions

A working group born from a Northwest Municipal Conference summit in September aims to ensure the suburbs’ sophomore year of the electric bike and electric scooter craze is better prepared than 2025.

Along with Ride Illinois Executive Director Dave Simmons of Elk Grove Village, the group of state legislators and municipal staff has been crafting a bill to be introduced next month in Springfield that the conference’s membership can support.

The top goals have been to define new categories in the state vehicle code, reining in often deceptive online retailers, and educating children and families about safe use, Simmons said.

Another benefit would be ironing out of an often contradictory patchwork of local laws that suburbs approved this year to meet public safety concerns.

Topics there was little time for last summer included an examination of how the phenomenon came about and the important distinction between legal e-bikes and the faster, often tougher-looking e-motos not yet defined by the state, Simmons said.

“It is mostly online retailers tapping into people’s interest in finding new ways to get around,” he said of the rise of e-motos. “They’re made to look very attractive. The prices are appealing compared to a legal e-bike. I feel these were on a lot of kids’ Christmas lists last year.”

E-motos, which can resemble either motorcycles or dirt bikes, are not strictly speaking permitted or prohibited due to their absence from the vehicle code. The working group’s law enforcement representatives said patrol officers would have been likely to leave them alone if their distinction can’t be spotted.

Simmons said state law requires legal e-bikes to have a sticker identifying them as such. These would have been responsibly sold by most brick-and-mortar bike shops, he added.

Another big component of the year ahead is to educate children, using the schools as a base.

“There is opportunity for promoting responsible use of these,” Simmons said. “Thirty percent of people don’t have driver’s licenses, and these devices, if used properly, can be beneficial.”

That’s why, among the regulators he’s serving with on the working group, Simmons is eager to share the jokingly named concept of “car brain” — when public policy regarding the interaction between cars and bicycles is always approached from the perspective of not inconveniencing motorists.

The current debate over e-bikes is a prime example, he added.

“One of the main goals is to make sure e-bikes are understood and not overly regulated,” Simmons said. “People getting hurt, injured or startled isn’t right. But the uproar about kids is palpable, yet at the same time disproportionate.”

Car crashes happen every day, but they don’t lead to a working group concentrating on changing state law for vehicles that can travel 120 mph, he added.

For parents wondering what to do with e-motos they bought for their kids before new regulations took effect, Simmons advises just waiting until their children are 16.

“My hope is that e-motos will have found a place, and not by kids,” Simmons said. “We’re trying to educate people from buying devices they can’t or shouldn’t be using. Fast forward five years from now, there will be other devices.”

Schaumburg was among the first suburbs to enact regulations in 2025. Sidney Kenyon, the village’s transportation director, also serves on the working group and foresees a continued role for municipalities.

“We will continue to focus on education and engagement efforts to help riders better understand and comply with local regulations,” Kenyon said. “We’re also planning to strengthen collaboration with neighboring municipalities and regional partners to identify consistent approaches that enhance public safety across communities.”

Schaumburg also will continue evaluating the effectiveness of current regulations to determine whether any refinements or improvements are needed, he added.

As ambitious as the public education goals are for 2026, Simmons sees them as a good starting point rather than the finish line.

“It’s certainly going to take time,” Simmons said. “But we can take a big bite out of it.”