Despite being a comparatively recent phenomenon, e-scooters enjoy an immense popularity in the cities in which they are available. As a result, their potential impact on road safety has been questioned, as injury crashes and violations of road rules are reported with increasing frequency. It can be suspected that at least to some degree, a lack of awareness with regard to the existing rules, coupled with a certain lack of agreement with these rules, might be the cause. Aim of the study presented in this paper was to quantify this issue with the help of an online survey. With a usable sample of 337 participants (105 users of e-scooters, 232 non-users), we looked into rule knowledge, agreement with the rules (users only) and past behaviour, including violations, while riding (users only). The results indicate that there might be reason for concern. While users seemed to outperform non-users on the knowledge questions, their rates of correct responses were far from perfect. Among the users, agreement with the rules was generally high, yet there were also clearly visible minorities who considered several rules as being too strict. It seems that in order to improve compliance, there is a need for a structured instruction of the users that addresses issues of rule knowledge, but also instils the motivation to follow these rules.
展开▼
