Are electric skateboards legal in Chicago?

Each row is the statute's own content, reduced to plain wording where it is long and quoted directly where the exact words matter. The section in the last column is a link to the text.

• Municipal Code of Chicago § 9-4-010 — Definitions. Official source, read 2026-09-27.
  Read via a web.archive.org capture of the city code on American Legal Publishing (the city's code host); the live page returned HTTP 403 to our tools. Capture dated 11 February 2025.
• Municipal Code of Chicago § 9-52-130 — Low-speed electric mobility devices. Official source, read 2026-09-27.
  Read via a web.archive.org capture of the city code on American Legal Publishing (the city's code host); the live page returned HTTP 403 to our tools. Capture dated 26 October 2025 (code supplement 2025 S-70).
• Municipal Code of Chicago § 9-52-020 — Riding bicycles on sidewalks and certain roadways. Official source, read 2026-09-27.
  Read via a web.archive.org capture of the city code on American Legal Publishing (the city's code host); the live page returned HTTP 403 to our tools. Capture dated 27 October 2025 (code supplement 2025 S-70).

Every source on this page is the text as published by the legislature or the state agency itself. Open them.

What one costs today. The cheapest complete electric skateboard in stock at a shop we read is 38" Hurricane Electric Longboard Electronic Skateboard, at US$240 (the cheapest one, tracked daily). 34 boards under $500 · 94 under $1,000 — every price checked at the shop, not copied from an ad. The full picture, from entry boards to the top of the range: how much an electric skateboard costs.

Buying in the United States. Electric skateboards from the 254 shops we read there, priced in the currency they charge.

Deciding between a board and a single wheel? Onewheel or electric skateboard. A word in the texts above you do not know? The glossary.

The same four questions, across every jurisdiction whose primary sources we have read. Neighbouring jurisdictions link to their own page and citations; every other one is a click away on the full list.

The spread is the point. These are neighbouring jurisdictions regulating the same object, and they do not agree on what it is, how fast it may go, who may ride it, or whether it may be ridden at all. A rider who crosses a state line is, quite often, subject to a different legal category rather than a stricter version of the same one — which is why a single national answer to this question does not exist and why anyone offering you one has stopped reading the law.

It also explains why so many rows say the device is unaddressed. Most vehicle codes were written before this machine existed, and a legislature that has not revisited them has not thereby permitted anything — it has left the question to a general classification and to your city.

No text we read for Chicago names a board with a single wheel. The reading above is for electric skateboards; whether a Onewheel falls in the same class, another one or none is a question the statutes here do not answer, and neither do we. 11 jurisdictions do name it — Are Onewheels legal?

• It is not legal advice, and it never says you may ride. It says what the statute says, and links it.
• It does not repeat Illinois law. The city's rules sit on top of it; read that page too. Park, transit and campus rules can add more.
• It does not cover private property, insurance, or what happens after an accident.
• It may be out of date. Every source carries the day we read it. A statute amended since then will not have updated itself here.

Across the border: Illinois. Every other jurisdiction: the full list.

Are electric skateboards legal in Chicago?

A statute names the device and sets out what is required to ride it. The Municipal Code of Chicago does not use the words electric skateboard. Since April 2019 it defines a “low-speed electric mobility device” by criteria rather than by type (no operable pedals, no more than 26 inches wide, under 100 pounds, an electric motor with a maximum speed of 15 mph, one rider), takes it out of the definition of vehicle, and applies the Title 9 bicycle rules to it (§ 9-52-130(c)), including the sidewalk limits of § 9-52-020. The definition names no device type, not even the skateboard; it reaches a board only through those criteria, and a board capable of more than 15 mph falls outside it. Illinois state law also applies on top of these city rules; see the Illinois page.

Is a Onewheel legal in Chicago?

No statute we read for Chicago names a board with a single wheel, so the law there does not answer directly. For electric skateboards, the status we found is: specific law, with conditions. Only 11 of the 99 jurisdictions we read name a one-wheel board: Utah, Quebec, Queensland, Tasmania, Seattle, South Korea, Belgium, British Columbia, New York, Victoria, the Netherlands.

Do I need a helmet in Chicago?

No rule naming this device addresses helmets in the sources we have read for Chicago. Your municipality may have one.

How fast am I allowed to go in Chicago?

No speed limit specific to this device appears in the sources we have read for Chicago.

Does state law still apply in the city?

Yes. This page reads the city's own code; Illinois law applies on top of it, and where the two differ, the stricter rule is the one you meet on the street. The state reading is on its own page, with its own sources.

How do I check this myself?

Open the links in the sources below. Every row in the table above names the section it comes from, and every source shows the date we read it. That is the whole point of the page: you should not have to take our word for it.