Micro-Mobility for Europe (MMfE) – an association of shared micro mobility providers, such as e-bikes and e-scooters, in the EU – has published a factsheet of incident data involving shared e-scooters in Europe. The association hopes that this transparency will inform road safety policies that could reduce incident risks for vulnerable road users – including e-scooter riders, cyclists, and pedestrians.
The collected incident data was sourced from its six founding members: Bird, Bolt, Dott, Lime, Tier, and Voi. It was based on over 240 million shared e-scooter trips, accounting for over 461 million kilometers (~ 286m miles) traveled, across 29 European countries. All MMfE members monitor safety incidents, which are broken down into different damage categories, severity levels, and root causes.
Latest findings show that the overall risk of incidents requiring medical treatment is 60% lower than comparable data from 2019. In 2021, 5.1 injuries requiring medical treatment with shared e-scooters per million kilometers were registered. It was also shown that the fatality rates on shared e-scooters are twice as low as those on private e-scooters.
Based on these findings, MMfE provided a set of recommendations to improve the safety of vulnerable road users:
- investment in protected infrastructures – such as protected bike lanes;
- harmonizing incident reporting standards in the EU;
- acknowledging e-scooter riders as vulnerable road user; and
- encouraging rules enforcement by local authorities.
MMfE is also calling for a standardized incident framework in the EU, as shared e-scooter and private e-scooter – along with other new modes of transportation (such as monowheels, electric skateboards, etc.) – incident data is most often combined in incident reporting.