Scott Stantis editorial cartoon for Wed, Sept 24, 2025, on e-bikes and scooters (Scott Stantis)
By The Editorial Board | Chicago Tribune
E-bikes are a growing concern statewide, especially in the suburbs where teenage use is rising.
That problem turned into a tragedy last week when a 17-year-old boy from Mount Prospect was killed. Police say he failed to yield at a stop sign and crashed into a pickup truck.
Parents saw their own children in this tragedy. A knee-jerk reaction among some folks was to call for e-bikes and e-scooters to be banned. We understand that temptation, especially in light of this heartbreaking story.
Still, we wouldn’t go that far, but we recognize the growing tension as more e-bikes and scooters hit the streets and sidewalks.
We’ve seen these vehicles used responsibly, too, with drivers wearing protective helmets and navigating streets and sidewalks carefully and efficiently. Some of these drivers are teens getting to school.
But in practice, high-powered e-bikes function more like motorcycles, and yet teens can ride many classes of e-bikes under Illinois law without the licensing or training required for motorcyclists.
Illinois is struggling to keep up with changing technology and habits, but its rules must evolve and adapt.
Read more here.
There are rules in place. E-bikes (and regular bicycles) are vehicles and need to comply with rules of the road. Sidewalks are for pedestrians.
Well if bicycles & E-bikes are “Vehicles” and Sidewalks are for pedestrians, does that mean that pedestrians should NOT be walking on the bike paths?? Then the bike paths also generally have signs up that say NO motorized vehicles allowed except authorized vehicles. So that means No E-bikes should be allowed on the bike paths also, right??
The problem here isn’t the E-bike it’s the people that ride them. Yes I’m old so a lot of you will say my opinion doesn’t matter or I’m not relevant anymore…Whatever is what I say to you. Young people, such as kids ranging from 10 or younger and all the way into their 20’s have absolutely no respect for anyone or anything that doesn’t fit into their way of thinking. It used to be, only ride your bikes on the sidewalk, never in the street, then it went to ride your bike on the street, not on the sidewalks but ride against traffic, so you can see the cars and the cars can see you, then it went to ride in the same direction as the traffic and you must have headlights and tail lights on your bikes, and now the bicycles have the right of way on the roads and you must give them 3 foot of room when going around them, they have all the same rights as a car or truck, but then these same privileged people, don’t use hand signals, they don’t stop at red lights, they don’t stay in the bike lane even when it’s marked as a bike lane and if you try to go around them because they’re in the middle of the road, they take a picture of your license plate and send it to the cops saying you tried to run them off the road. It’s the people and their I’m better than you attitudes that need to be reigned in. I say if you’re 10yrs old and older, you need to take a safety course for all bikes pedal or electric. Then, you need to take a riders course and of course then get you license to operate a 2 wheeled vehicle at the DMV. Here in IL we have hundreds of miles of bicycle paths specifically for bicycles, so why are people on bicycles in the middle of major US routes at 5 &6am with no lights on their bicycles and they yell and throw things at cars for passing to close to them, when they can’t even be seen unit you almost hit them. Yeah I know, Long winded, but maybe some useless politician will actually, read and possibly follow up and see that bicyclists are privileged little assholes that should be forced to pay for safety training and schooling in order to ride. I have to do it for my cars. I have to do it for my motorcycles, I have to do in order to keep my CDL license and every 4 years I have pay out the butthole because of the tests I have to take at the DMV. So either start making cyclists take tests and obey the laws or bicycles and E-bikes all together.