The Illinois rebuild — name the device, then write the operating rules once

A patch fixes one definition. A rebuild fixes the whole chapter, and it is the right tool when a code has accumulated four or five overlapping micromobility classes with different rules and no obvious home for anything new.

The shape Illinois used is worth copying: one umbrella term for the category, an enumerated list of the devices inside it — including the one-wheeled device, named — and then one set of operating rules written against the umbrella term rather than against each device. This template adopts Illinois' own "electric unicycle" definition unchanged, quoted on this page, and writes its own version of the operating rule, described below.

The payoff is that the next device to be invented needs one line added to the enumeration, not a new chapter.

Where this template's operating rule departs from Illinois' enacted text

This template's operating rule is PEVRA's own paraphrase of Illinois' enacted rule, not a copy of it, in three respects. First, where the enacted text bars a rider from impeding or obstructing "other vehicular traffic," this template says "the normal flow of traffic": "other vehicular traffic" reads as classing the device itself as a vehicle separate from the traffic around it, which is close to the same shape-based line-drawing this whole page exists to avoid, and "normal flow of traffic" reaches the same rider behavior without that framing. Second, this template departs from Illinois' enacted subsection (b)(1), which bars a sidewalk outright: PEVRA's own position is that an electric unicycle belongs on a sidewalk at a speed appropriate to and limited by pedestrian use, so this template grants sidewalk access under that condition instead of barring it. That sidewalk grant is the whole of the departure: the rest of this template's facility list — a street, a roadway or a highway, a bicycle lane, or a bicycle path — is Illinois' own enumerated list in a different order, not a list of PEVRA's own devising. Third, this template omits the balance of Illinois' enacted subsection (b): a highway posted above 35 miles per hour without a designated bicycle lane, and an interstate highway, are both off-limits under the enacted text, and a device that is both mechanically capable of going faster than 28 miles per hour and, at that moment, actually being ridden faster than that speed — the enacted text's own two-part test, not a flat ban on any device merely capable of going that fast — is barred from every public highway, every bicycle lane and every bicycle path. That conduct-based framing, which turns on how fast a device is actually being ridden rather than what it is hardware-capable of, is the exact distinction PEVRA's own position on device speed caps turns on. Those three restrictions are facility- and speed-specific choices a jurisdiction should make for itself; a drafter who wants Illinois' full operating rule, restrictions included, should adopt the text quoted on this page rather than this template's shorter version. The one restriction this template does carry forward, in brackets so a drafter has to decide it rather than inherit it, is the exclusion of a limited-access highway — see the drafting notes.

"Electric micromobility device" means an electric bicycle, an electric scooter, an
electric unicycle, or a similar device designed to transport one person, propelled
in whole or in part by an electric motor.

"Electric unicycle" means [adopt the text of Illinois Public Act 104-0854's electric
unicycle definition, as quoted on this page].

An electric micromobility device may be operated on any street, roadway or highway
[other than a limited-access highway], and on any bicycle lane or bicycle path, within
this State. A rider must not impede or obstruct the normal flow of traffic while doing
so. On a sidewalk, an electric micromobility device may be operated only at a speed
appropriate to and limited by pedestrian use, yielding to a pedestrian.

An electric micromobility device is not a motor vehicle.

Two details that make the difference between this working and not working. First, this template adopts Illinois' own "electric unicycle" definition rather than writing a new one, so the one-wheeled device is named in its own definition and not left to be swept up by "similar device" — a residual (leftover, catch-all) phrase is exactly the thing that broke in the first place. Second, this template departs from Illinois' enacted sidewalk bar because PEVRA's own position on where an electric unicycle belongs is that a sidewalk is included, at a speed appropriate to and limited by pedestrian use, not that a sidewalk is barred; the grant reflects that position directly, in its own words, rather than leaving sidewalk access to a separate local bicycle rule.

Why the grant says "[other than a limited-access highway]" in brackets. A grant of "any street, roadway or highway" written flat would, on its face, put a rider on an interstate. PEVRA takes no position on interstate access: the three positions this organisation states are about how a device is defined, whether a licence is required below 30 mph, and where a speed limit belongs — none of them is a claim that a one-wheeled device belongs on a motorway. So the exclusion is bracketed rather than either written in as settled text or left out: a drafter has to look at it and decide it for their own state, which is what a bracket in a model bill is for. A state that has already decided the question one way or the other can strike the bracket or the phrase inside it.

Illinois' own text is bot-blocked at its statutory publisher, so the quotes below sit at tier C — PEVRA's lowest source-confidence rating, for text read by an automated pass rather than opened by a person in a browser — until a steward opens them. A drafter should confirm them before filing.