Well, even if it is legal as far as the state is concerned, I found that my own city and at least one more in my travel path has specifically banned these things. I sent the following letter to my city's mayor and all of the councilmen...let's see where it goes:


Good afternoon council members. My name is Warner Xxxxxxxxxxx and I’m a 42 year old working professional that has been a resident of Elgin for 15 years. Due to the incredible price of gasoline I have been looking into alternative forms of transportation, and thought that I had found the perfect solution in a power-assisted bicycle. My plan was to commute to and from work on the bicycle, as they routinely achieve more than 150 miles per gallon. I have found that the state of Illinois allows such vehicles to be used as long as they are under 50cc’s in displacement and the operator is a licensed driver. Perfect, I thought. Each day that I rode the bike to work would save my family $10. However, when I checked the municipal code in Elgin I was shocked to see that there is an ordinance specifically banning them. I can understand the need for laws to keep kids from riding their scooters and whatnot all over town, but for a law to be in place that bans the use of something like this for a licensed adult driver just doesn’t make sense. Please tell me that I have misread the ordinance or that there are plans in place to look into this further. I can’t afford to keep filling my van’s gas tank at $95 a shot. I can be reached via e-mail or any time on my cell phone at xxx-xxx-xxxx