Renting an escooter is cheaper than getting a cab, requires much less effort than biking, and is actually far more handy than a packed bus. However on the identical time, the variety of escooter accidents is rising — with the harm price in some circumstances exceeding that of motorcycles.
As a safety measure, Cincinnati has turn out to be the third metropolis within the US to implement a nighttime ban on escooters.
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Citing “pedestrian security issues, underage driving, and prison exercise,” the town will enable the operation of rental two-wheelers solely between 6AM and 6PM.
E-scooter utilization within the Metropolis has been revised as a result of pedestrian security issues, underage driving & prison exercise. The Metropolis, Chook & Lime Bike have agreed on 6am-6pm for brand spanking new hours of operation. They’ll solely work throughout these hours. Depart suggestions right here: https://t.co/Ha2dWrvrUV
— Metropolis of Cincinnati (@CityOfCincy) April 26, 2022
However is nighttime driving actually such a foul factor?
A 2021 research examined the impact of nighttime restrictions in Atlanta in relation to escooter accidents that resulted in hospital admission from June 2018 to August 2020.
The research discovered that the proportion of escooter riders injured in the course of the hours of the night-time ban (9PM to 4AM) diminished from 32% to 22%, following its implementation.
The analysis workforce additionally found that 19.4% of the injured riders had been discovered intoxicated, which coincides with published intoxication rates for riders admitted to emergency departments throughout the US.
To sort out this difficulty, escooter operators, reminiscent of Bird and Tier, have put in “anti-drinking” options of their apps to discourage customers from driving below the affect. However these options aren’t actually foolproof and it’s nonetheless as much as the riders to resolve whether or not they’ll act responsibly or not.
Past alcohol impairment, nevertheless, nighttime driving presents yet another essential problem: restricted visibility.
The lights of escooters have smaller vary in comparison with automobiles, which implies that it’s tougher to detect obstacles, pedestrians, and different passing autos at midnight.
Equally, the tail lamps current one other drawback: they’re positioned very low, just some centimeters above the bottom, which might make it more durable for automotive drivers to note them in time.
Nonetheless, extra knowledge is required to precisely conclude whether or not a nighttime ban is important to extend escooter security. Within the meantime, confirmed issues of safety together with the dearth of uniform laws, insufficient infrastructure, and associated driving training needs to be addressed.
