Report: Rapid growth of e-scooter programs has led to a ‘patchwork approach to safety’

Across the United States, e-scooter programs are taking communities by storm—’micromobility’ electric scooters can be found in the middle of city sidewalks, along curbs and resting in alleyways. Amid this booming trend, municipal administrators are struggling to balance the many benefits of e-scooters—like positive economic impacts and their ease of use—with safety implications.

A new report released recently by the Transportation Research Board, “E-scooter Safety: Issues and Solutions,” outlines a number of deficiencies in e-scooter initiatives that can compromise rider safety, such as regulatory shortcomings that stem from lagging oversight. E-scooter adoption is happening faster than communities can keep up. According to a statement issued by the Governors Highway Safety Association, which sponsored the research, researchers “found that available data and research evaluating e-scooter safety are lagging behind the rapid adoption and expansion of this form of transportation.”

To that end, the report, which was released under the Behavioral Traffic Safety Cooperative Research Program, is intended as a guidance for administrators amid a “rapidly changing e-scooter safety landscape.” Safety concerns include improper parking, inexperienced, reckless or impaired drivers, and harassment.

“E-scooters, which were a novelty just a few years ago, are here to stay. They are not cost prohibitive for personal use, and scooter-share systems are expanding or launching in more cities every year,” said Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, which sponsored the research. “Everyone deserves to feel safe on the road, and we must do more to prioritize safety for this growing mode of travel.”

Over the last few years, e-scooter programs have almost doubled in number. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics documented at least 158 U.S. cities with e-scooter systems as of this July; 87 e-scooter systems were operating in 2019. And last year, the North American Bikeshare and Scootershare Association reported there were 52 million e-scooter trips made, an increase of more than 50 percent from 2020.

The study, which was published in the National Academy of Sciences, includes a number of interesting datapoints of note to administrators such as who rides e-scooters most often: Riders are usually white middle class men between the ages of 18 to 34. And, at least for now, usage is concentrated in select cities. 

For example, 40 percent of all U.S. e-scooter trips took place in three cities: Los Angeles, Calif.; Austin, Texas; and San Diego, Calif. in 2018, based on data from the National Association of City Transportation Officials. The following year, the city transportation officials association “reported that e-scooter ridership was greatest in Atlanta, Ga.; Austin, Texas; Dallas, Texas; Los Angeles; San Francisco; and Washington, D.C. Trips in these cities accounted for 38 percent of all e-scooter trips in the United States,” the study notes. 

Most of the challenges related to e-scooters faced by communities stem from this rapid adoption.

Specifically, oversight is lacking because communities haven’t been able to keep up with the technological advances: cohesive statutes and regulations vary based on location. This makes it difficult for road users to know what’s permitted in a given city, and for law enforcement agencies to regulate unsafe actions. Instead of a universal set of regulations, communities are taking “a patchwork approach to safety that does little to protect these vulnerable road users,” the statement says.

Data is also limited because e-scooter crashes are underreported (again, because there’s no universal standard), and cities have limited infrastructure for e-scooters—this pushes riders to go wherever they feel the safest based on what’s available.

And beyond a lack of standards and regulations, police officers who are charged with enforcing standards don’t have proper training, the statement continues: “Education is essential for ensuring micromobility (e-scooter) users operate these devices safely and respectfully and other road and sidewalk users respect the right of micromobility users to operate on the public way.”

For more information and to download the report in its entirety, visit the Governors Highway Safety Administration’s website.