We use [injury rate / kms traveled] to obfuscate car injuries
Automotive lobbyists. That’s why killing someone drunk driving a car is manslaughter not murder. Scooter lobbying is probably pennies to the dollar of automotive lobbying.
Scooters don’t have odometers making data collection difficult. Similar vein, scooter accidents and injuries are less likely to be reported or linked back to scooters than to cars.
Given cars go significantly farther than scooters that likely makes the output number not very useful and possibly harmful from a marketing standpoint. 1/10,0000kms for cars vs 1/100kms for scooters is not appealing.
Scooters are still new. There probably isn’t enough data yet. Right now a lot of scooter roll outs are in their pilot phase or recently completed it.
Scooter injuries have significantly more/different factors. I friend of mine needed elbow surgery because he lost balance due to a combination of wind, being tall, catching on a tree branch, losing control, side walk disrepair, and bad luck hitting his elbow on a concrete barrier. And he was sober.
I don’t disagree; my point is that these statistics are coming out woth an agenda behind them, whem the total number of annual scooter injuries is half that of car fatalities (2k) alone. And two orders of magnitude smaller than car injuries (119k).
We brush off the massive carnage as daily business (I guess 5x daily) but stress some electric scooters.
We’ve got jurisdiction’s, like Ontario, actively trying to remove safety features for vulnerable road users, and this messaging is part of that endeavour.
If you’re saying the automotive industry is stymieing such statistics, than I fully agree. I think that incentive is a stronger argument than my other speculations.
However I do believe scooters need to be regulated more.
Speed limiters. I’ve seen people going 60kph, passing cars in the bike lane. With no helmet.
Mandatory insurance & licencing. But make it like fishing licenses where its relatively easy/cheap, you’re informed of the rules, sign a contract you’ll adhere to them, and then if you get caught without it or contravening it you’re fined heavily.
Separate mixed use infrastructure. Nothing against bike lanes… but we need to separate cars and non-cars.
Scooters definitely need more regulations. My experience as someone walking in a city with them hasn’t been very positive.
They’ve been frequently tossed on the ground after their use. It’s a rental, and people don’t care what happens to it because it’s not their problem.
They frequently block curb ramps for wheelchairs. Sometimes it’s even the company putting them there (all lined up nicely, just to block the way). Sometimes it’s just people tossing a scooter there after use.
My partner uses a wheelchair so scooters have been a pain in the ass for them.
Safety wise there are problems. The scooter app will tell you to wear a helmet and never ride on the sidewalk (to cover their asses) but no one wears a helmet on them.
A scooter rider hit my partner, then a stationary car once. At another time a scooter hit me and knocked me over (they were speeding down the sidewalk late at night).
But “stupid drivers” also applies to bikes, and cars. And the potential for harm with an F-150 is a lot greater than a scooter
My scooter has an odometer. I’ve travelled 1593 km over a year and a bit. I’ve had about 4 near-misses which resulted in little or no injury and 1 serious accident that resulted in a bad but not severe injury (hematoma and long-lasting muscle strain, I didn’t go to the doctor but I suspect it might’ve been a low grade tear). The bad accident was me crashing into a fence, because I got distracted by dogs.
I think I’m a bit more clumsy than the average rider, but y’all can have my data to start the research.
I am not in favour of car-centric transportation but cars very rarely explode and burn your house down when you sleep. Electric scooters come with a whole different set of hazards compared to cars, but yes, injuries per km does help to add context.
Do you have a clothes dryer in your home? A stove/oven, rice cooker, air frier, oil fryer, etc?
Those cause more house fires than anything else. E-scooter house fires are extremely rare, and usually only as a result of using non-certified batteries and chargers.
It’s almost unheard of to have a UL certified e-scooter or ebike catch fire.
That’s why we keep anything powered by electricity outside of the house. Who knows when a gameboy could catch fire and explode and burn your house down???
Har har, the issue is the joules of energy stored in the battery and how quickly it can be discharged. A pair of AA batteries store the same energy as ~5grams of TNT but they can not release it all at once. An electric scooter or bike battery stores the equivalent energy to a large car crash and can release it in seconds due to the chemistry and construction.
But what’s the injury rate for scooter km’s travelled?
We use that to obfuscate car injuries, why do scooters get a different treatment.
Automotive lobbyists. That’s why killing someone drunk driving a car is manslaughter not murder. Scooter lobbying is probably pennies to the dollar of automotive lobbying.
Scooters don’t have odometers making data collection difficult. Similar vein, scooter accidents and injuries are less likely to be reported or linked back to scooters than to cars.
Given cars go significantly farther than scooters that likely makes the output number not very useful and possibly harmful from a marketing standpoint. 1/10,0000kms for cars vs 1/100kms for scooters is not appealing.
Scooters are still new. There probably isn’t enough data yet. Right now a lot of scooter roll outs are in their pilot phase or recently completed it.
Scooter injuries have significantly more/different factors. I friend of mine needed elbow surgery because he lost balance due to a combination of wind, being tall, catching on a tree branch, losing control, side walk disrepair, and bad luck hitting his elbow on a concrete barrier. And he was sober.
I think the statistics are still cooking.
I don’t disagree; my point is that these statistics are coming out woth an agenda behind them, whem the total number of annual scooter injuries is half that of car fatalities (2k) alone. And two orders of magnitude smaller than car injuries (119k).
We brush off the massive carnage as daily business (I guess 5x daily) but stress some electric scooters.
We’ve got jurisdiction’s, like Ontario, actively trying to remove safety features for vulnerable road users, and this messaging is part of that endeavour.
If you’re saying the automotive industry is stymieing such statistics, than I fully agree. I think that incentive is a stronger argument than my other speculations.
However I do believe scooters need to be regulated more.
Speed limiters. I’ve seen people going 60kph, passing cars in the bike lane. With no helmet.
Mandatory insurance & licencing. But make it like fishing licenses where its relatively easy/cheap, you’re informed of the rules, sign a contract you’ll adhere to them, and then if you get caught without it or contravening it you’re fined heavily.
Separate mixed use infrastructure. Nothing against bike lanes… but we need to separate cars and non-cars.
Scooters definitely need more regulations. My experience as someone walking in a city with them hasn’t been very positive.
They’ve been frequently tossed on the ground after their use. It’s a rental, and people don’t care what happens to it because it’s not their problem.
They frequently block curb ramps for wheelchairs. Sometimes it’s even the company putting them there (all lined up nicely, just to block the way). Sometimes it’s just people tossing a scooter there after use.
My partner uses a wheelchair so scooters have been a pain in the ass for them.
Safety wise there are problems. The scooter app will tell you to wear a helmet and never ride on the sidewalk (to cover their asses) but no one wears a helmet on them.
A scooter rider hit my partner, then a stationary car once. At another time a scooter hit me and knocked me over (they were speeding down the sidewalk late at night).
But “stupid drivers” also applies to bikes, and cars. And the potential for harm with an F-150 is a lot greater than a scooter
My scooter has an odometer. I’ve travelled 1593 km over a year and a bit. I’ve had about 4 near-misses which resulted in little or no injury and 1 serious accident that resulted in a bad but not severe injury (hematoma and long-lasting muscle strain, I didn’t go to the doctor but I suspect it might’ve been a low grade tear). The bad accident was me crashing into a fence, because I got distracted by dogs.
I think I’m a bit more clumsy than the average rider, but y’all can have my data to start the research.
Base jumping off an EUC obviously safer.
I am not in favour of car-centric transportation but cars very rarely explode and burn your house down when you sleep. Electric scooters come with a whole different set of hazards compared to cars, but yes, injuries per km does help to add context.
To play devil’s advocate:
Do you have a clothes dryer in your home? A stove/oven, rice cooker, air frier, oil fryer, etc?
Those cause more house fires than anything else. E-scooter house fires are extremely rare, and usually only as a result of using non-certified batteries and chargers.
It’s almost unheard of to have a UL certified e-scooter or ebike catch fire.
The problem is that non-CSA approved batteries and chargers are being sold in Canada with absolutely no regulation.
If you look at fires per unit sold the scooters and bikes are probably an order of magnitude higher than stoves and dryers.
Sounds like you have nothing against escooters, you just have an issue with under-regulation for battery safety
If electric scooters catch fire, that’s something that needs regulations to fix, but it doesn’t mean that cars are better.
also, Didn’t know that Scooters and IDF shared strategies
The scooters aren’t trying to burn down Palestine, they are just giving up on existence and hoping to take their oppressors with them.
oppressors?
we are their gods, we created them, feed them, control every aspect of their existence.
them setting themselves aflame to kill a god is way more epic than what your described
What is a god, if not an oppressor?
almost the ultimate oppressor, the greatest one is a person’s inner self, tethering to a reality no one consented to be in
That’s why we keep anything powered by electricity outside of the house. Who knows when a gameboy could catch fire and explode and burn your house down???
Har har, the issue is the joules of energy stored in the battery and how quickly it can be discharged. A pair of AA batteries store the same energy as ~5grams of TNT but they can not release it all at once. An electric scooter or bike battery stores the equivalent energy to a large car crash and can release it in seconds due to the chemistry and construction.