Medium Report on E-Scooter Safety, 2020

A report by civil engineer Annie Chang was released by Medium’s OneZero in January 2020, and it explores traffic data to assess the question: are e-scooters dangerous? The report draws heavily from Chang’s PhD dissertation at McGill University, and well as research presented at the 2020 Transportation Research Board Forum.

Based on an analysis of 196 hours of video data at an intersection in Washington D.C., the author determines that “e-scooters share similar vulnerabilities as cyclists, but they’re not necessarily more dangerous”. The report concludes that scooters have not yet been in widespread use long enough to make more general claims about their role in traffic accidents. However, evidence suggests that improving road safety for vulnerable road users – including e-scooter users, cyclists and pedestrians – will likely help to limit preventable incidents.