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Title:

An Analysis of Current E-scooter Safety Regulation in a Large US City Using Epidemiological Components as a Framework

Accession Number:

01764166

Record Type:

Component

Abstract:

E-scooters had been promoted as a solution to the environmental and last-mile issues. However, physicians have reported an unusual increase in injured e-scooter riders to the point of calling it an “epidemic.” In 2018, an epidemiological investigation of the e-scooter’s safety was carried out, in which it showed the results of injured riders in a large US city for a period of 87 days. The effectiveness of the legal framework to mitigate the health concerns raised by physicians has, nevertheless, not been analyzed to determine the suitability of the current transportation policy on micro-mobility devices to tackle this public health issue. To address this gap, this paper presents a normative analysis of the legal framework for micro-mobility devices in a large US city. Based on the Haddon Matrix traditional model for infectious disease causation and its three main components: agent, host, and environment, used by traffic authorities in the 1960s, the current micro-mobility regulation does not offer practical provisions to tackle safety concerns efficiently. A comparative analysis was carried out between motor vehicles and e-scooters in order to establish the extent of the safety problem, finding that if e-scooter riders were to travel the same distance in miles as motor vehicle drivers during 87 days, there would be 280,842 e-scooter-related injuries compared to just 3,608 motor vehicle injuries. This study should encourage local authorities around the world to enact effective regulations tackling the safety issue of micro-mobility devices.

Supplemental Notes:

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AJL20 Standing Committee on Transit and Intermodal Transportation Law.

Report/Paper Numbers:

TRBAM-21-02499

Language:

English

Corporate Authors:

Transportation Research Board

Authors:

Salas-Niño, Liliana

Pagination:

13p

Publication Date:

2021

Conference:

Transportation Research Board 100th Annual Meeting

Location: Washington DC, United States
Date: 2021-1-5 to 2021-1-29
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board; Transportation Research Board

Media Type:

Digital/other

Features:

Figures; Maps; References (37) ; Tables

Subject Areas:

Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment

Source Data:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2021 Paper #TRBAM-21-02499

Files:

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Created Date:

Dec 23 2020 11:21AM