E-Scooters are lethal as transport

[Bristolian]

Seen too many who shouldn't be able to use them in Leeds, now a trial city, to not believe there's a workaround being used.

Wonder if the council or police could take action on abandoned vehicles causing a danger to pedestrians and other road users.

We're on our third trial hire company in Bristol. The one before this one was fined heavily by SGC for their scooters littering the pavements and for a while the company tracked where they had been left at the end of a hire and charged the hirer an amount (don't remember what it was) for returning them to the nearest official parking area. My grandson's wife, who uses one to commute to work, tells me they stopped doing that some time ago.

 

[steveindenmark]

That sounds a bit negative. I would call it being more responsive

No Bromptons are twitchy until you get used to them.

 

[All uphill]

https://theconversation.com/head-injuries-associated-with-e-scooters-new-study-289320

Interesting article here.

One conclusion is that injuries from e-scooters different from those on a motorbike or bicycle.

 

[SteveH80]

https://theconversation.com/head-injuries-associated-with-e-scooters-new-study-289320

Interesting article here.

One conclusion is that injuries from e-scooters different from those on a motorbike or bicycle.

That doesn't really surprise me, and I suspect it not just the design of scooters.
When riding a bicycle or motorbike or we are focused on the ride and inherently aware of the dangers, so are more likely to be able to respond favourably if it goes tits up. We also generally wear some protection too.
E-scooters are viewed as an alternative to a pair of shoes, and generally we don't expect shoes to turn round and bite us.
I might be talking cobblers mind...

 

[All uphill]

That doesn't really surprise me, and I suspect it not just the design of scooters.
When riding a bicycle or motorbike or we are focused on the ride and inherently aware of the dangers, so are more likely to be able to respond favourably if it goes tits up. We also generally wear some protection too.
E-scooters are viewed as an alternative to a pair of shoes, and generally we don't expect shoes to turn round and bite us.
I might be talking cobblers mind...

Very good!

The report comments on the consequences of hitting a root or hole. On a tiny wheeled scooter the rider goes over the bars, on a bicycle the rider experiences a bump.

 

[wafter]

Interestingly I have recently been perusing data from the trial of e-scooters and e-bikes that has been ongoing in Bristol and South Gloucestershire since the end of October 2020. The trial was originally slated to run for one year but because of Covid the DfT extended that twice before handing it over to the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) who have currently licensed it until late 2027. Success or failure is being judged on 4 metrics and the results (which are being analyses by the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England) so far are ~
1. Modal Shift & Public Transport Integration
• Car Replacement Met Target: The trial successfully displaced cars, with 30% to 36% of e-scooter trips replacing journeys that would have otherwise been taken by car or taxi. In the first year alone, this accounted for over 1 million replaced car trips.
• Transit Synergy: The "first/last mile" metric scored well, with 10% to 20% of journeys being used directly in combination with public transport (such as commuting to and from Bristol Temple Meads).
• Active Travel Displacement: A noted drawback in the UWE evaluation showed that the remaining 60%+ of rides replaced walking (35%), bus use (19%), or traditional cycling (15%), meaning the trial heavily cannibalised other green transit methods.
2. Safety and Casualties
• The "Safety in Numbers" Success: A landmark University of Bristol study published in Injury Prevention found that introducing the e-scooter scheme reduced overall serious and fatal bicycle collisions by 20%. Researchers concluded that more micro-mobility users on the road forced drivers to behave more cautiously.
• User vs. Non-User Perception: While 70% of e-scooter riders reported feeling safe, general public perception remains divided due to pedestrian near-misses.
3. Environmental and Infrastructure Impact
• Carbon Savings: WECA confirmed that the high volume of car displacement resulted in a net reduction in regional travel-related carbon emissions.
• Pavement Clutter Failure: Street scene management was heavily criticized. The evaluation highlighted that poorly parked e-scooters frequently obstructed footways, negatively impacting blind and partially sighted pedestrians. However, tracking data showed riders generally rode correctly, with over 96% of e-scooters staying on the carriageway/cycle lanes rather than mounting pavements.
4. Accessibility and Social Inclusion
• High Uptake: Bristol became the most heavily utilized trial fleet in the UK, with roughly 1 in 15 residents (7%) actively using the system monthly.
• Demographic Imbalance: The trial failed to achieve equal demographic reach. The vast majority of active users (81% to 84%) were concentrated entirely within the 18-to-34 age bracket, and predominantly skewed male.

So far as the relevant authorities are concerned this trial is a success overall. Public opinion, or maybe perception, may be different. I regularly see kids riding the scooters - which should not be possible but suggests they are using a parent's account - often two or three up. Pavements are still littered with discarded bikes and scooters - I'm fed up of reporting them where I live - and I rarely see anyone riding on the road but we all know how dangerous that can be so maybe I shouldn't be surprised. This last observation flies in the face of Dott's data. There has been a notable drop in the number of hire scooters and bikes around since the local university broke up for the year and a corresponding increase in the number of unused ones littering the pavements.

Bristol City Council data shows that there are an average of 100 incidents involving e-scooters/bikes per year in the city but they don't have a breakdown between legal and illegal ones, which feels like a bit of a failure considering the safety and casualty metric.

Thanks - it's really interesting to see some actual numbers / objective assessment of their "success".

I must admit that reading this has taken the edge off my growing dislike of these on the basis of the way they're ridden and often abandoned; which I guess are relatively small prices to pay if they're significantly reducing the amount of car journeys in high-traffic areas.

Probably won't prevent the next one I find parked broadside across the cycle path getting slung in the hedge, mind..