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Residents and police urge education, enforcement as e-bikes and scooters speed through Lake Bluff downtown
Summary
At the June meeting of the Village of Lake Bluff Board of Trustees residents raised safety concerns about fast e-bikes and scooters in the downtown; police and trustees said education is the near-term approach while neighboring municipalities have pursued bans.
Resident Stephanie Martin urged the Village of Lake Bluff Board of Trustees on June 9 to address what she called a "surge, pun intended, of e bike and scooter users" downtown, saying posted signs asking riders to walk their devices are not being heeded.
The matter matters because trustees and police said speeding, high-performance electric bikes and scooters that can reach roughly 30 miles per hour are creating near-misses downtown and pose a risk to pedestrians, especially children and older residents.
Stephanie Martin, who said she lives at 126 East Sheridan Place, told the trustees she counted multiple users ignoring eight downtown sandwich-board signs and described three near-miss incidents during a single outing. "There are no fewer than 8 sandwich boards kindly asking everybody to walk their wheels in Downtown Lake Bluff. This is great, except a lack of enforcement renders all 8 of them useless," she said.
Police Chief (name not specified) told the board Lake Bluff and nearby Lake Forest are operating under the same new state law that defines e-bike classes and speeds and said the department is emphasizing education and parental engagement rather than arrests. "We are trying to create that culture…we are being vigilant of this," the chief said, adding officers have in some cases returned youths home to their parents and that some privately sold devices can be modified to reach motorcycle-like speeds.
Trustees asked when enforcement would escalate beyond warnings. The chief said responses depend on the severity of incidents and emphasized teaching compliance rather than immediate heavy-handed penalties. The department confirmed there has been one recorded e-scooter accident in Lake Bluff in recent years; no severe injuries were reported in the comments given to the board.
Trustees and staff discussed noncriminal responses and educational measures: posting clearer information online, working with local schools before the school year ends, and sharing guidance through the village's communications channels. A trustee suggested modeling a public-facing web page on Lake Forest's publicly available e-bike guidance covering classes, speeds and licensure.
Several trustees urged continued monitoring and asked staff to return with options that could include enforceable local ordinances (for example speed limits or helmet rules) or coordinated educational campaigns with schools. "I'd like us as a board to continue to monitor and maybe even enact some ordinances around speed limits or helmets or something that's enforceable by our PD to protect our kids," one trustee said.
No formal motion or ordinance was proposed or adopted at the meeting. Staff said they will continue outreach with school partners and neighboring police chiefs and will report back with additional information.
The board did not set a timeline for any ordinance drafting; trustees said they prefer to collect further information and possible options before taking regulatory action.
