Updated Nov. 29 with comments from a Safe Streets Alliance for Arlington Heights member.
Arlington Heights village trustees on Nov. 17 amended its e-bike law to require a minimum age of 16 after they rejected most age restrictions just two months earlier. But at the last minute, they offered a unique caveat.
Young riders under 16 who want to use e-bikes can just take a quiz.
Trustee Wendy Dunnington successfully asked for a provision to allow any youth to ride an e-bike after completing Ride Illinois’ Bike Safety Quiz at least through the “silver” level.
The quiz, actually a set of quizzes, has been one of Ride Illinois’ mainstay campaigns for years. The bicycling advocacy organization believes the tool is the first of its kind in the nation, teaching children and adults key rules and tips about bicycling, especially on roads, as well as driving around bicyclists.
But while the quizzes have been used for traffic ticket diversion programs in Urbana and Champaign, according to Executive Director Dave Simmons, certificates from the quizzes have never been used as a pass or license to ride any vehicles such as e-bikes.
So the Arlington Heights village board is breaking ground by creating a way for youths to escape the age restrictions it just established. But not all village leaders agreed on the concept. Most had not heard of the quizzes, and some argued the quiz certificates will be hard to enforce, require no training and lack governmental regulation.
About the Bike Safety Quiz
Ed Barsotti, former Ride Illinois executive director, told Ralph Banasiak for his Daily Herald column that the Bike Safety Quiz concept arose out of a video Ride Illinois developed in 2006 to fill a driver’s education gap. Barsotti soon realized kids could too easily zone out while watching the video.
In 2012, Ride Illinois hired a consultant to develop software for the quiz, and Barsotti and other Ride Illinois board members developed and refined the questions.
The concept yielded four separate quizzes, three available in Spanish. Since 2018, they have reached over 340,000 students in over 420 Illinois schools, Simmons told Banasiak. Beyond students, Simmons estimates another 200,000 individuals have accessed them since their launch.
As Banasiak reported, Ride Illinois also provides schools grant money in conjunction with the quizzes — $2 for every quiz completed. Schools have bought such things as stationary bikes and heart rate monitors with their grant money.
Version 2.0 of the quizzes was released to schools this fall and will be available to the public next spring. Multiple-choice questions incorporate real-life scenarios with photos, and relevant topics such as e-bikes and law changes.
No training or reading is required ahead of the quizzes. The quizzes effectively offer the training themselves because the test-takers see the answers right away. When they’re correct, the quiz usually will explain further; when they’re incorrect, the explanations still show and the test-takers get two more chances to answer the question.
There are three levels to each quiz: bronze, silver and gold. The child’s quiz has 12 questions at the bronze level, seven at the silver and six at the gold. The adult quiz has more questions. Each test-taker can decide whether to proceed to the next level once an earlier one is completed.
At whatever level a person completes, a digital certificate is generated in a PDF format, and it can be downloaded.
The latest Arlington Heights ordinance is saying youths need only complete the bronze and silver questions in order to ride e-bikes regardless of how old they are.
(Author’s disclosure: I am a volunteer on Ride Illinois’ Fundraising and Membership Committee.)
Why trustees added the provision
The amended ordinance, updating what trustees approved Sept. 15, was first brought to the village board Oct. 15, after suggestions from various village commissions and leaders to add restrictions.
It said anybody could ride any devices less than 10 mph anywhere. Only those 18 and older, or 16 and 17 if they have a learner’s permit or driver’s license, could ride devices 10-28 mph on streets only. And nobody could ride anything greater than 28 mph anywhere.
But some thought the amendment went too far.
“I’m concerned that there’s parts of the ordinance that are overly restrictive,” Dunnington said Nov. 17. “Micromobility devices offer individuals who can’t drive or choose not to drive a reliable, inexpensive mobility option.
“Age, disability, personal choice and lack of other transportation options are common reasons for using devices. These devices are frequently used by lower-income individuals, and they are environmentally responsible. So we should be willing to embrace the responsible use in our community.”
A couple of residents at the village board meeting echoed Dunnington’s sentiment, arguing that the proposed ordinance blocked responsible teens who could use e-bikes to go to school and fully participate in the community, without burdening parents. E-bikes would also help youths with disabilities keep up with their peers, one resident said.
One of those residents was Robert Brodecki, who’s part of the Safe Streets Alliance of Arlington Heights, of which Dunnington is also a member. He said alliance members came up with the quiz idea the week before the village board’s Nov. 17 discussion.
“It hits on the education aspect, which many board members and community members said needed to be improved, and gave a way to check if e-bike riders have gone through some safety training,” Brodecki wrote in an email.
One attorney with the Freeman Kevenides Law Firm, which specializes in bicyclist and pedestrian injuries, said the Bike Safety Quiz provision could help youths.
“It strikes me as positive to the extent that it may encourage kids wanting or needing to travel independently to learn the rules of the road, as well as safe riding techniques at an early age,” Brendan H. Kevenides wrote in an email. “The ordinance could be a useful carrot-and-stick approach that tells children that they can earn access to independent travel if they take the time and accept the responsibility for learning how to do so safely.”
Arguments against the quiz provision
Trustee Greg Zyck on Nov. 17 noted the reason the age and learner’s permit/driver’s license provisions were added.
“Unfortunately, where they’re under 16, they just don’t understand the rules of the road, and you can see that,” Zyck said.
Trustee Colin Gilbert said he still worried about kids’ safety at speeds over 10 mph, even with the Bike Safety Quiz provision.
“I have an issue with some kids, even with a certificate, being able to go that fast on those devices,” Gilbert said.
Village Manager Randall Recklaus questioned whether a Bike Safety Quiz certificate could compare to a learner’s permit or driver’s license.
“We are, in the regulatory world, very familiar with what it takes to get a learner’s permit,” Recklaus said. “… Most young people that get a learner’s permit carry it with them at all times. We are not familiar with this program in terms of this silver certificate, and what that would mean, the rigor with which that’s tested.”
“Is it an online test? Is it something you have to get signed off on by some kind of state agency?” he asked. “… And the other thing is, are kids going to really be carrying that certificate everywhere they go?”
Deputy Police Chief Greg Czernecki echoed Recklaus’ concern about enforcement.
“With the certificate, it’d be hard right now,” Czernecki said. “We could run a person’s name, date of birth, see if they have a license, even if they’re not carrying their license with them, and be able to verify that they have the appropriate credentialing. I would say, to be operating those (e-bikes) with a certificate, they’d have to have it on the person.”
What comes next
The village board passed the amended ordinance, with further amendments including the Ride Illinois quiz provision and another allowing e-bikes up to 15 mph on shared-use paths, with a 5-3 vote.
Trustees Dunnington, Zyck, Robin LaBedz, Bill Manganaro and Carina Santa Maria voted in favor. Gilbert, James Bertucci and Mayor Jim Tinaglia voted against.
Recklaus said the village will now create a publicity campaign about the latest ordinance. The leaders did not get into the details about how the Bike Safety Quiz provision would be communicated and enforced.
PDFs of Bike Safety Quizzes also are available, though they don’t make the bronze-silver-gold distinctions.
Simmons said young riders’ use of his organization’s quizzes could be hard to confirm. “Perhaps Arlington Heights can make it work,” he wrote in an email.
Ride Illinois has advocated for allowing broad use of legal e-bikes, as defined by the state, while restricting e-motos, the bikes with motors of 750 watts or more that tend to go faster than 28 mph.
“Ride Illinois contends that existing state law regarding legal e-bikes is adequate,” Simmons wrote. “In which case, the only restriction is that one needs to be at least 16 years old to ride a Class 3 e-bike,” which goes up to 28 mph. Class 1 and 2 e-bikes max out at 20 mph and have no age limits under state law.
LaBedz left the open the possibility of adjusting the ordinance in the future.
“If we find that it is unworkable with this new ordinance, and I would hope that we could get some reports possibly about how it goes, then if we see fit to make further changes, we can always do that,” she said.
Brodecki said the Safe Streets Alliance will help with the education campaign.
“We hope to collaborate with the schools and ride advocacy groups to spread awareness of this ordinance and start getting kids to take the quiz so they can ride and ride safely,” he wrote.
• See the suburb-by-suburb breakdown of e-bike laws here. And consider donating to help defray the costs of this website.
