New Ordinance Restricts Scooters, Bicycles on Certain Downtown Sidewalks

At the July 28 Board of Trustees meeting, the Village of Mahomet passed an ordinance that restricts the use of scooters, bicycles, skateboards, and unicycles on certain Downtown Mahomet sidewalks. Mahomet Chief of Police Dave Smysor shared that the new ordinance was a response to numerous complaints about “close calls” in Mahomet's Main Street Business District.

The Village Board of Trustees passed a new ordinance concerning the use of wheeled objects on downtown sidewalks

With storefront doors opening onto the sidewalk, he said, pedestrians exiting these buildings sometimes encounter fast-moving riders and “it creates the potential for a collision.”

The ordinance applies to...

• Bicycles, electric bicycles, e-motos, unicycles, electric skateboards, skateboards, and electric scooters

• Sidewalks only; bicyclists may ride in the street and follow applicable laws

• Riders of all ages

• 400-block of Main Street (Lincoln to Elm)

Anyone riding one of the above wheeled objects within the designated area must dismount and walk with it. The ordinance does not apply to mobility devices or strollers.

When Main Street blocks are closed for large events like Music Fest, the road becomes a pedestrian zone, and the ordinance applies to the event area. This means that people may not ride skateboards, scooters, etc. past the barriers that create the event boundary.

Mahomet’s ordinance is part of a broader landscape of legislation around the usage of wheeled, particularly motorized, objects. Chief Smysor noted that a “number of communities in Illinois have passed similar ordinances” to ours. He also said that parents should be aware of new legislation in the State of Illinois, currently awaiting Governor Pritzker’s signature, that will “put some severe restrictions on electric scooters, especially for children,” disallowing riders under the age of 16 to ride in the roadway.