Responding to growing safety concerns around e-bikes and e-scooters as the devices’ popularity rises, St. Charles recently adopted an ordinance updating its bicycle policy and clarifying where different types of e-bikes and other motorized devices can and can’t be used in the city.

In doing so, the city joined scores of other suburban municipalities — from Highland Park to Park Ridge to Oak Lawn — enacting similar legislation in response to resident concerns about safety.

St. Charles officials have indicated that the city’s ordinance reflects current state law, which offers some guidance about where e-bikes can be used and who can ride them, but also gives local municipalities some leeway to make their own rules.

Under Illinois law , e-bikes, which are sometimes referred to as

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