By Steve Beech
Copyright irishmirror
E-bicycle riders are eight times more likely to crash in cities than the riders of electric scooters.
E-scooters have often been identified as more dangerous, but safety experts say that picture changes when they are compared on equal terms.
The study shows that the crash risk is eight times higher for e-bikes than for e-scooters, calculated based on the trip distance with rental vehicles in cities.
The team say their “surprise” findings suggest that previous studies have “grossly underestimated” the safety of e-scooters in relation to e-bicycles.
A number of previous studies have identified e-scooters as far more dangerous than e-bikes and ordinary bicycles. But according to the new study from Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology, it is not as simple as that.
Prof Marco Dozza said: “Previous studies have often compared apples with oranges. They have lumped together e-bicycles with ordinary bicycles, and haven’t taken into account where, how and how much these vehicles are used – or whether they are rented or privately owned.
“When we took all these factors into account, we found e-scooterists actually have a lower rate of crashes than e-cyclists.”
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