E-bike laws from Chicago are extremely inconsistent

The fifteen-year-old Sam Thomas has spent a large part of the past two years between his house in Ittasca and the nearby Elk Grove village in the past two years.

Too young to drive to drive, the teenager enjoys the independence that the battery -powered bike gives him while he moves between cities without needing a parent to chauffeur. The bike can easily reach 30 miles per hour and give Sam a freedom that goes hand in hand with some risks.

In addition to several CURB Falls and Close Calls, he was hit by a car in June when he drove in the village of Elk Grove and suffered slight leg and wrist injuries. His bike suffered considerable damage, but he was back on another and rode between cities within a week.

However, the trips of the teenager to Elk Grove Village are no longer an option. From July 1st, anyone who drives within the city limits must have a valid driver's license for the operation of electric bicycles and scooters.

The restriction means that nobody under the age of 16 – including Sam and several of his friends – can drive there on the streets.

“I mainly bought (an e-bike) because it is easier to get places,” said Sam. “I don't have to rely on my parents bring me to the gym, basketball or to the house of my friend.”

But what Sam appreciates as a convenience see officials from Elk Grove Dorf as a public security problem.

“It is one thing for adults who know how to drive,” said the mayor of Elk Grove Village, Craig Johnson, his support for the new regulations last month. “It is a completely different thing if you drive 11, 12-, 13-year-olds with 3,000 pound cars next to you.”

When the new rules adopted, Elk Grove joined a growing list of suburbs in Chicago, which have issued harder e-bike regulations due to growing security concerns. Several municipal-Darunter Highland Park, Schaumburg, Glen Ellyn and Lombard has recently imposed on the age limits of the drivers, while Burr Ridge e-scooters banned from the streets.

The Illinois law divides e-bikes into three classes based on its maximum supported speed and the question of whether the engine demands the driver to the pedal. Nobody under the age of 16 is allowed to ride a bicycle that can reach more than 20 miles per hour according to Illinois law.

According to state regulations, drivers must also mark their bicycles with the motor cotton and classification type. However, the officers of Elk Grove Village believe that it is more important for the drivers to follow the rules of the street, said Scott Eisenmenger, deputy chief of police.

“If our officer goes down a young person and drive it unsafe, you will not really know by just looking at this activity which class the bike is,” said Eisenmenger.

Radking advocates are worried about inconsistent rules in the suburban landscape. Some regulations determine age limits for drivers on all e-bikes, while others prohibit them to use paths. Schaumburg, for example, lets e-bikes at low speeds on the same ways as traditional bicycles, but the Highland Park has banned some of its ways from its ways.

“Every community makes its own thing,” said Dave Simmons, managing director of Ride Illinois based in Elk Grove. “You drive with an e-scooter in Elk Grove and then cross the border to Schaumburg or ITosca. Now the regulations are different.”

Without uniformity, it is up to any city to clarify its residents about the local rules. At the celebration of Rosella's independence day, the police authority set up a stand to explain permissible e-bike paths and speed borders.

According to the rules of the city, anyone who is younger than 16 years old can drive fewer powerful class 1 and class 2 e-bikes without motor aid and rely solely on the pedal performance. Like the Law of Illinois, Roselle orders prohibited everyone under the age of 16 to ride a class 3 bike that reaches up to 28 miles per hour before the engine cuts. In addition, nobody can operate an electric scooter at low speed under 18.

When police officers spoke to drivers – and saw how some of them passed their stand without a second glance – said Roberto Barretto, chief of police from Roselle, his department was “on education” instead of punishment.

It is not just children who have to learn the new rules. Her parents must also understand them because they can be held responsible if their children repeatedly violate the regulation, he said.

“Parents can also get a ticket,” said Barretto.

ITasca residents of Constantin “Gus” Kyriakopoulos recently received shipping via the new regulations of his city and e-bike drivers under the age of 16. Kyriakopoulos, an enthusiastic e-biker himself, sees the recent rules as a “very great experimental thing”.

His 14-year-old son Frank has had an e-bike in class 3 e-bike. The teenager likes to drive via the Irving Park pedestrian bridge from ITasca to Addison, where a new regulation says that he has to be 16 years or older to drive an e-bike like its.

Kyriakopoulos checks his son's trips with the LIFE360 app because he knows how dangerous the trips can be.

“The fact that these things run so quickly and it takes a mistake to be hit (driver) is annoying,” he said.

It is not just open that he is worried. The drivers also scare him.

“I think the greater adaptation is that people in cars have to understand that e-bikes do not go 4 or 8 miles per hour,” he said. “You go as quickly as the speed limit.”

But there is hope in the distance. Frank will have his driver's license in two years and will be less dependent on his e-bike.

“Then I will take a deep breath,” said his father.

Originally published: July 14, 2025 at 5:00 a.m. CDT