Friday, 29 March 2024
e-ScootersInfrastructureNews

Early German micromobility accident data shows low KSI rate

German killed and seriously injured data has begun to track incidents specifically where micromobility forms are said to be involved.

The debut dataset spans January to March 2020, during which time micromobility such as electric scooters were involved in 251 personal injury accidents, while 39 were seriously injured and one killed.

Benchmarked against the data attached to cycles, which recorded 12,727 accidents, 2,052 seriously injured and 52 killed in the same period, the trending personal travel format appears to be relatively safe; though at present there are likely to be far more cycles on the road than e-Scooters.

Such data will be heavily sought after as the UK begins to witness roll out hire schemes, for which many labels are already vying for street space.

On trial for the next 12 months, the Government is watching with a keen eye to see primarily if micromobility forms such as electric scooters do indeed pull people out of cars, but also to track how they are used alongside KSI data. It is these factors most likely to affect long-term legality.

On the contrary, specialist electric scooter website electric-scooter.guide has a detailed analysis of why we might want to hold out for more data before we badge one transport form safer than another.

In Germany electric scooters were approved for use on the cycle paths and protected lanes since the Ordinance for Small Electric Vehicles legislation came to exist on June 15, 2019. Their use is also permitted in the hard shoulder, but not on footpaths, as is the case in the UK. Users are permitted to scoot from age 14 and no driver’s licence is required, as in the UK where the entry age is 16 and at least a provisional is required.

The data was drawn specifically from accidents with electric micromobility vehicles in Bremen from February 26th, 2020, in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania from February 12th, 2020 and in Schleswig-Holstein from January 14th, 2020.

micromobility ksi