E-scooters five times safer than riding a bike
It comes as trials of e-scooters continue in various parts of the UK
New research suggests riding an e-scooter is five times safer than riding a pedal bike.
That's according to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) as over 50 areas trial e-scooters including Middlesborough, Bristol, Birmingham, Nottingham, Liverpool and Bournemouth
A report from the society found an incident rate of 0.66 collisions for every million miles travelled on an e-scooter, compared to a rate of 3.33 for cyclists and 5.88 for motorcyclists.
That's using data both from the Department for Transport (DfT) and e-scooter operator Neuron, from 2020.
Nathan Davies, Executive Head of Policy and Portfolio at RoSPA said: “e-scooters are clearly set to be a long-term feature of our transport mix and it’s of pressing importance that we understand their impact on road safety and how they can be made safe for everyone to use.
"This report shows that e-scooters compare favourably to other kinds of vehicles and do not represent any greater safety risk to other road users and pedestrians.
"However, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to ensure they are integrated on our highways and make sure both e-scooter riders and cyclists are offered greater protections from motor vehicles, which were the source of the vast majority of incidents.”
The RoSPA says e-scooter operators like Voi who run the trial schemes in Bristol and Bath, have demonstrated a strong commitment to safety, but that a similar commitment needs to "filter across" to sales of private e-scooters.
Most of the incidents recorded involved private e-scooters, the use of which is currently illegal on UK roads.
George Symes, UK Regional Manager at Neuron Mobility said: “As a relatively new mode of transport there is often a misperception that e-scooters present a greater risk than some other forms of transport, but the data shows this simply isn’t true.
"We welcome RoSPA’s report which shows that e-scooters – particularly rental e-scooters – compare very favourably to bikes and motorcycles when it comes to the number of incidents.”
With the numbers of e-scooters in the UK increasing sharply since 2020, both as part of the Government’s ongoing trials and often illegal use of private e-scooters, there is a pressing requirement for further research into how the safety of these devices shapes up against other vehicles.
Of the incidents that did occur on e-scooters, figures showed that the overwhelming majority of them (94 per cent) took place in local authority areas that were not operating an e-scooter trial as opposed to areas with shared e-scooters available, further highlighting that so far, the UK’s shared e-scooter trials have proven to be very safe.
The vast majority of incidents also involved a collision between an e-scooter and a larger powered vehicle like a car, truck or lorry, highlighting the need for improved infrastructure and protection for riders.
The data also shone light onto the types of riders involved and the time of day incidents were most likely to take place, with the majority of collisions happening during daylight hours, between 2pm and 7pm, with peaks at 3pm and 6pm.
Men (77 per cent) were far more likely to be involved than women.
Based on the findings the RoSPA has made several recommendations for how to improve safety as follows:
- Further investment in road design improvements, including segregated bike and e-scooter lanes
- Improved safety standards to make e-scooters more visible
- Mandatory training on the Highway Code for users
- Training on e-scooter behaviour for other road users, in particular car drivers
- Greater encouragement of the use of helmets on e-scooters
You can read RoSPA's report in full here.