Impact of e-scooters on road safety: A case study in Lithuania

Abstract

The rapidly growing popularity of electric scooters in recent years has allowed the road user to choose another alternative mode of transportation. On the one hand, it is an ecological means of transportation in the city, allowing you to quickly reach your destination; on the other hand, it is a vehicle that causes risk to road safety. Although this is a fairly new mode of transport, it is already of great concern for road safety authorities. E-scooter accidents are recorded with all road users – pedestrians, bicyclists, motor vehicles, other e-scooter riders, or even alone. In this article, the analysis made according to the accident data of 2019–2020 showed that the highest number of accidents occurred between e-scooters and vehicles. Most e-scooter accidents with motor vehicles occur in the intersection zone or during a vehicle turning manoeuvre to (or from) side streets and exit lanes. A descriptive statistical analysis showed that the proportions of the distribution of road accidents between accident participants changed significantly during the analysis period – the number of road accidents between e-scooters and bicycles increased, while the number of accidents between e-scooters and pedestrians decreased. The road accidents between e-scooters and other vulnerable road users are usually caused by sudden, unexpected manoeuvring of road users. Identification of accident schemes and locations is an additional tool for traffic organisation specialists and road safety professionals to prevent accidents, injuries, and fatalities.