Tragically, a 33-year-old man riding an electric motorcycle was struck and killed by a driver who disobeyed his traffic signal early yesterday morning in East Garfield Park. Compounding the tragedy, this was the second example of this kind of traffic crash on Chicago streets within three weeks.
According to the initial Chicago Police Department statement on Sunday, October 4, around 6:06 a.m. a 33-year-old male was traveling west on Lake Street on a “bicycle.”
While all other reports I’ve seen on the case used this terminology, or called the device an “e-bike,” an ABC7 Chicago report includes footage of a fat-tired Miyazaki vehicle. All the vehicles of this style on the company’s website have motors of at least 1,000 watts.
According to Ride Illinois, a bicycle advocacy organization that lobbied for a recently passed state law regulating electric micromobility vehicles, “Devices with an electric motor greater than 750 watts are not e-bikes.” They add, “Any type of device with an electric motor beyond a Class 1, 2, or 3 electric bicycle is not a legal e-bike and should not be advertised, sold, offered for sale, or labeled as an e-bike. These devices are commonly referred to as e-motos [i.e., electric motorcycles] or Out-of-Class Electric Vehicles.” These high-speed vehicles often or usually don’t involve pedaling.
As the e-moto rider on Lake crossed Homan Avenue, at a northeast corner of the Garfield Park green space, he was struck by the adult male driver of a black, two-door sedan, police said. The victim was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead…