Rise in traffic accidents in cities with e-scooters and poor bicycle infrastructure

In the Netherlands, the vast majority of e-scooters are not permitted on public roads, whereas in many other countries, they are. As a result, there are more traffic accidents with injuries there, reports Tilburg University.

Scientists studied the consequences of the presence of e-scooters in 93 cities in six countries: Austria, Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. Economist Johannes Kasinger from Tilburg University and his fellow researchers found that the number of reported accidents with injuries has increased by an average of 8.2 percent.

This has been the case since the introduction of electric shared scooters. The accidents occur mainly in summer and in cities with few cycle paths. "Electric scooters pose a higher safety risk in cities where bicycle infrastructure is underdeveloped. In such environments, electric scooters can increase the risk of accidents due to crowded streets and limited space. To counteract this, policymakers could focus on expanding infrastructure to create more space for other road users, for example by creating dedicated (bike) lanes," said Kasinger.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) stated in its Road Safety Annual Report 2018 that the socio-economic costs of road crashes for the European Member States alone are estimated at over €500 billion. In 2019, an average road accident with personal injury in Germany resulted in costs of €61,000, of which €44,780 was related to physical injury. If calculated for all six countries, this would result in a cost of around €5.6 million a year, the researchers found.