It’s hidden in plain sight. The article refers to the quietly alarming incidence of accidents and road mishaps involving shared e-scooters and riders.
Best to be aware and beware that there are at least 7 major reasons why riding shared e-scooters are so dangerous. This revolves around the difficulty of riding electric scooters since little or no instructions are provided to the riders, including the lack of safety precautions concerning e-scooter sharing that companies are not taking.
Poor design features make shared E-scooters dangerous and then some more…
1. Only consumer quality parts are used
The e-scooters one often sees on the road are consumer models. What does this mean? Consumer electric scooter models are not made of materials designed to withstand constant use. They were made specifically for single users who will only ride it a few times a day. Therefore, consumer parts, usually made of cheap plastic, easily wear down and deteriorate under the stress of constant and frequent use. Some of the problems with shared e-scooters have stemmed from poor vehicle designs.
2. The hidden fender brake on the back tire
Some, but not all shared e-scooters are equipped with an emergency brake. The brake is located on the back wheel. To the untrained eye, it looks like a plastic covering for the back tire. Very few riders know that you can step back onto the plastic covering to push it into the wheel. So when going down a hill, this hidden fender brake can be the only way to slow down. Most often, riders who do not know about this hidden brake will not be able to use it when they need to and this and not knowing its use can trigger it and cause an accident.
3. E-scooters have a high center of gravity
Simply put, e-scooters are meant to be stood on, during the ride. The center of gravity for electric scooter riders is very far from the ground. Since the spacing of the wheels is not wide enough to provide stability for a center of gravity that far away, tipping over or losing control can easily happen.
4. Small and solid wheels are not fitting
Upon close observation, the wheels on shared e-scooters are small – just about 9 inches or less on most models. Rather than filled with air, the tires are solid. This design was to reduce maintenance costs. Solid wheels, though, do not absorb shock very well and do not have as much traction as an air-filled tire. As a result, the tires are also much less able to roll up the small steps in the road, or the cracks between sidewalk blocks, much less go up the bump between the sidewalk and the street. This can cause the rider to lose control and get in an accident.
5. There is no rider training period
Some e-scooters use an app where any rider with a smartphone can download an app to unlock and ride the e-scooter. The sad part is that there is no training session or even an instructional video to serve as a guide.
Since riders have to pay for their first ride, they do not want to waste their money just getting familiar with the way they ought to ride an electric scooter. Studies show, and this is not even surprising, that one-third of riders who got hurt on the road were in the middle of their very first ride.
6. Most riders do not know traffic laws for electric scooters
Different states and different cities in Australia have their own rules as to where one can ride an electric scooter. Some require the rider to ride only the footpaths. Others forbid it especially on main roads, and so on. Very few riders know the rules of the road where they are allowed to ride. There are e-scooter sharing companies that most often do not provide a database of E-scooter rules and regulations, although they should and must.
7. Not notifying riders of damage on an E-scooter
This is very telling. There are safety precautions on the e-scooter that ride-sharing companies could have taken, but did not do so conscientiously, thereby posing danger to the riders.
Some companies compel riders to sign user agreement on the disclaim liability for damaged or defective e-scooters. Worse, users are not notified ahead at all of any damage or defects on the E-scooter they are about to ride. This puts riders and innocent bystanders in danger.
These are hard lessons to learn that can be avoided by carefully understanding, to know what options to choose. At the end of the day, the cost of either getting stranded on the road with a not fully charged electric scooter, or colliding with another vehicle because of not knowing the precautions or not being properly trained to ride one, or worse, not getting vital information if the electric scooter is defective or damaged can be life-threatening and worse, irreparable for you, the rider. Summing it up, it is not worth taking the risk at all. To know more about safety on electric scooters, visit www.mearth.com.au
