Electric bikes, known as e-bikes, are creating headaches – and outright dangers – for Sterling police, pedestrians and vehicle drivers, according to Sterling’s police chief.

“The biggest issue we are seeing with them is the manner in which they are being ridden and the age of the individuals who are riding them,” Sterling Police Chief Pat Bartel said in an interview with Shaw Local.

At the last several Sterling City Council meetings, Bartel has brought up the issue of increasing dangers caused by some e-bike riders throughout Sterling.

The bikes, which are standard bicycles equipped with electric motors and batteries, have gained popularity among all age groups, but especially among younger riders – riders who are too young, according to state law, to be riding those bikes.

Illinois law requires riders of Class 3 e-bikes, which provide pedal assistance up to 28 miles per hour, to be at least 16.

“We are seeing younger kids have them and they are riding around and doing things they shouldn’t be doing,” Bartel said.

E-bikes can reach speeds of 20 to 28 miles per hour and can weigh from 45 to 70 pounds, excluding the weight of the rider.

Bartel said police have seen an uptick in e-bikes with riders not old enough to ride them and of e-bikes being ridden in places where they are prohibited.

“They are not being ridden in the proper way. They are being ridden in areas they should not be ridden in by individuals who are not of age to ride them, such as downtown, through the parks, recklessly and not in a kind manner,” Bartel said.

Bartel said that regardless of what type of bicycle a person is riding, they still are subject to traffic laws.

“It’s just like a vehicle would be, like stopping at stop signs, signaling turns, riding against traffic, the proper way on the one-ways. Then there are the ordinances for bikes, like no riding on sidewalks in the business district. Our ordinances say no bicycles, scooters, skateboards anywhere in the business district on the sidewalks,” he said.

One of the biggest areas of confusion is the age at which individuals can operate e-bikes or a gas-powered bike.

“You have to be 16 years old before you can operate any one of the low-speed bikes, that’s an e-bike or a gas-motorized bike. The speed can’t be over 20 miles per hour for any of those, and they cannot be ridden on a sidewalk anywhere,” Bartel said.

He said police also have had reports of e-bike riders riding recklessly in vehicle traffic throughout the city.

“They are running stop signs, cutting in and out of traffic, pulling out in front of cars, not yielding the right of way, anything you can think of with traffic laws is basically what we are running into,” he said.

Sterling police have been making an increasing number of stops involving e-bikes, and Bartel said the SPD wants to protect the safety of bike riders, drivers and pedestrians.

“We aren’t looking to be heavy-handed, take away your fun, rob you of your bike type of police. This is all brand new to our officers as well, and we are learning as people are learning. The main thing is we want to educate e-bike riders and keep them safe, and the safety issue is what it comes down to. We don’t want to be responding to somebody who has pulled out in front of a car on an e-bike and gets hit and gets badly injured,” he said.

Bartel said many e-bike riders and their parents are not aware of the age restrictions.

“A lot of parents don’t realize the age requirement for these bikes when you get to that type of speed. We contact their parent or guardian. We educate them on what the statute says. It’s a fairly new statute for Illinois. It defined what we were looking at better than before,” Bartel said.

Another bill that further defines e-bikes – and the age and licensure requirements for electric bicycles according to the speed of the device – is advancing through the Illinois General Assembly.

Senate Bill 3336 would require riders of e-bikes or electric motorcycles capable of traveling over 28 miles per hour to have a driver’s license, carry insurance and register the bicycle or motorcycle. The bill also further defines, for police, how to classify electric and gas motorized bikes.

Bartel said the department has confiscated three e-bikes so far this spring, but he emphasized that confiscation is the exception, not the rule, for police when stopping e-bike riders.

“The instances where we’ve taken those e-bikes has been because the riders would not stop for us when we attempted to stop them. We had to chase them down or go to their house. It depends on the age of the person and the circumstances if there are additional charges,” he said.

Bartel said a simple traffic stop to warn a rider of basic traffic laws that also apply to bicycles turns serious when a rider refuses to stop.

“It may be a stop where the officer wanted to say, ‘hey, did you realize you didn’t stop back there, that you have to stop for stop signs?’ And they could have been on their way. That becomes a much more serious situation when the rider doesn’t stop. Now that person is going to face some charges, and that warning is not going to be there,” Bartel said.