The Schiller Park Board of Trustees signed an ordinance limiting & restricting e-bike use on June 26th, 2025 in order to make the streets of the village safer.

Ten to 15-year-olds who crash their e-bikes require an ambulance at five times the rate of other age groups in e-bike crashes, according to Marin County Health officials. Despite that, kids continue to misuse e-bikes around the world, which encouraged some states and cities to create ordinances to finally put an end to the unsafe driving, or at least reduce it.

The specific restrictions of the ordinance read “any person who does not possess a valid driver’s license shall not operate an electric bicycle upon any public street…,” according to the Board of Trustees. In addition to that, some extra guidelines are included but they mainly put restrictions on other miscellaneous parts of motorized modes of transport such as headlights, wheelchairs, scooters, etc.

Now, this change wasn’t only made in Schiller Park, but also in other cities and states such as Colorado, Utah, and Minnesota.

According to ABC News, the federal government didn’t make a law about e-bikes, it just left the states to define their own laws about e-bikes. The three aforementioned states decided to make ordinances against e-bikes due to the absence of federal law.

On top of ordinances, classification systems of e-bikes could support the restriction of unskilled drivers from accessing them.

PeopleForBikes recommends a classification system considering top speeds of e-bikes and the inclusion of a throttle, according to ABC News. This could be used to define which bikes kids are allowed to use, which is exactly what happened in California’s Marin County.

According to ABC News, the dangers of class two e-bikes–an e-bike that goes a maximum speed of 20mph and includes a throttle–prompted California’s Marin County to ban children under 16 from operating them and require anyone riding one wear a helmet.

However, the danger isn’t just kids riding e-bikes, but the batteries inside the e-bikes too.

According to Fire Rescue NSW, there were 180 lithium-ion battery fires this year in Australia–a large number of those being e-bike fires.

Due to this battery problem, cities have begun banning e-bikes on public transport so as to not damage the vehicle with lithium-ion battery eruptions.

Another consequence comes from this ban too however, as many people rely on e-bikes to get to work, making use of public transport along the way. This problem is exemplified by Courier Saam Taghavi in Sydney.

According to Anthony Saegart, interviewer of Mr. Taghavi, many people who relied on bringing their e-bikes on trains to get to work can no longer do so. “This ban will be the last straw for many riders, “ Taghavi claimed, “without the ability to flexibly, relocate delivery e-bikes to high-demand hotspots, there will be very few riders available to serve business and customer demand.”

However, this does not apply to humble Schiller Park as train travel is unavailable, making e-bikes and cars the only options, forcing some drivers to take to the streets unsafely on e-bikes that are only now getting laws put in place. 

“I do support requiring a license for e-bikes in Schiller Park, not just because they’re dangerous,” Alexia Paucar, a local to Schiller Park said, “but because there needs to be some kind of structure and responsibility around them. Right now, anyone can just hop on one, and there’s no way to tell if they know what they’re doing. A license would set a basic standard, so riders… understand how to use the bike. It also makes it easier to hold people accountable if they’re being reckless.”

At the same time, Paucar sees the same issue in the ban as Taghavi, but preaches that safety should still come first.

“I think restricting e-bikes might make it harder for some people to do certain tasks or jobs, like delivery work or getting places fast without a car. But at the same time,” Paucar states, “safety should come first. E-bikes are basically mini motorcycles, and a lot of teens ride them without experience or training.

Whether you think the restrictions are necessary or not, they’re still keeping the streets of Schiller Park safer. According to Paucar, “even if restrictions make things a little less convenient, I think they’re important to reduce accidents and ensure only responsible riders are using them.”