Hear researcher Marco Dozza explain why electric scooter cyclists should practice driving vehicles

The purpose of the study was to understand what causes an accident in order to be able to improve road safety in the long run.  

The researchers compared how riders handle a bicycle and an electric scooter, respectively, during spontaneous and planned braking.

The vehicles behaved differently.  

- The best strategy for a cyclist and an electric kick cyclist to avoid the same collision can be different - either to brake or to turn, says Marco Dozza, professor of vehicle safety at the Department of Mechanics and Marine Sciences at Chalmers.

Need more data

The pilot study is small and more data needs to be collected.

But in the long run, the researchers hope to be able to contribute to an urban environment that is better adapted to different types of micro-mobility.  

- With more data from a larger selection of drivers, we can get a comprehensive picture of how drivers need to behave in traffic for it to be safe to ride an electric scooter.

says Marco Dozza.

Limited number of electric scooters

According to a SOM survey from 2019, 60% of Gothenburgers wanted to limit the use of electric scooters.

The politicians in the Gothenburg City Transport Committee have recently decided to introduce a maximum ceiling of 4,000 electric scooters.

That is about a halving compared to last year.

The purpose is to reduce complaints, increase accessibility and reduce accidents.