E-Scooter Presence in Urban Areas: Are Consistent Rules, Paying Attention and Smooth Infrastructure Enough for Safety?

Abstract

Electric micromobility represents a sustainable mobility option for specific classes of users and distance thresholds. Had this mobility solution been integrated into a comprehensive mobility framework from the beginning, it would have expanded the coverage and accessibility of urban transit services. Instead, slow and incoherent regulation has established a contrast between enthusiastic users (who consider electric micromobility vehicles “fun” and “easy to use”) and recalcitrant public opinion (wherein electric micromobility vehicles are deemed “unsafe” and “dangerous”). Beyond the few attempts made by transport experts to assess the capability of e-scooters to become a sound mobility option (through mobility surveys, pattern analysis, fleet and routing problems), safety and infrastructure design should be developed in a consistent way in order to guarantee a balanced transport setting. With respect to this challenge, a methodology framework is proposed to address the increasing proliferation of micromobility in the context of a coherent transport system. Special attention is devoted to those aspects that have received less attention from the scientific community, namely infrastructure and safe interactions at intersections. The similarities and differences between e-scooters and bikes, chosen in this study as the representative of traditional soft mobility modes, have been taken into consideration. To support the proposed approach, tests investigating e-scooter performance and the perception of both the modes at safety-critical nodes (such as intersections) under different conditions are presented, and the methodology can be applied to a variety of urban scales. The results can be adopted by local authorities, transport companies and e-mobility providers to optimize infrastructure and increase the number and quality of available mobility options.