The Highland Park City Council on Monday increased the minimum fines related to electric scooters and bikes from $10 to $100, giving more bite to new regulations banning the vehicles from city sidewalks and trails.
The maximum fine amount of $500 will remain unchanged. The fine increase passed unanimously.
The e-bike and e-scooter ban passed with a 6-1 vote in June, driven primarily by public safety concerns. The regulations also require riders to meet age and licensing requirements — they must be 16 with a driver’s license to operate an e-bike by themselves, or over 18 with a license to operate an e-scooter by themselves.
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During Monday’s meeting, city staffers noted residents had reached out about the new e-bikes and scooters regulation. Staffers said they will assess its impact and compile a report to present to the council in about a month.
Highland Park’s e-vehicle ordinance is part of a growing patchwork of e-bike and e-scooter regulations across the region, as municipalities try to address safety concerns around high-speed e-vehicles driven by teens. In Highland Park, a distracted juvenile was left in the hospital after riding an e-scooter into a crosswalk and colliding with a vehicle.
Other communities have adopted “variations” of Highland Park’s ordinance, according to Highland Park police Sgt. Brian Soldano during a June Committee of the Whole meeting. They include Deerfield, Lombard, Glen Ellyn and Lake Forest.
Some in the region have voiced concerns about inconsistent rules from community to community causing confusion. While Highland Park has set age and license restrictions, and banned them from sidewalks and roads, other communities such as those in Cook County’s suburbs have less-stringent rules.
Highland Park Councilmember Jon Center was the sole vote against the ban. In previous comments, while acknowledging the safety concerns that drove his fellow councilmembers to vote in the new regulations, Center raised concerns about the ban being overly broad and impacting families and older residents safely utilizing lower-speed e-vehicles on trails.
“I think we’ve worked hard to promote being a bicycle-friendly community … by restricting a portion of cyclists who enjoy riding bikes on these paths,” he said. “It feels contrary to those goals.”