Electric scooters have revolutionized urban mobility and are a growing phenomenon, but studies indicate that their accident rate has skyrocketed by 37%.
The accident is caused by a male between 15 and 34 years old who was traveling on the road and collided with another vehicle. In 59% of cases, the injuries are minor. In 35%, serious. Fatal outcomes occurred in 6% of cases. This is the portrait of the accident victim and the consequences of the accident with Personal Mobility Vehicles (PMV), the vast majority of which are electric scooters. You just have to look at cities throughout Spain, no matter whether they are small, medium or large, to observe the unstoppable advance of the new kings of urban mobility. And to see, also, the lights and shadows of this unstoppable phenomenon.
The data from the Analysis of the Accident Rate of PMVs 2023 published by the Mapfre Foundation and CESVIMAP show a worrying progression in terms of accidents: 297 in 2023, with 187 people injured, including drivers and pedestrians, and 12 fatalities. The death toll has increased by 37% compared to 2022. A dramatic fact that contrasts with the stagnation, if not decline, in the number of deaths on the roads, for example, in traffic accidents, which has been declining for almost 30 years.
When the widespread use of what are now called PMVs began to be evident, regulations and standards arrived to achieve safer mobility in the space of coexistence between different mobility options that cities have become. The first thing was to define what a PMV was and differentiate it from other vehicles. Hence the approval of the limitations on their use in Royal Decree 970/2020 of November 10, where a change was established in the General Traffic Regulations to regulate the use of these devices, which allowed cheap, fast mobility, and low emissions. In a word: sustainable and affordable for young people, and also for the not so young.
With this royal decree, the circulation of PMVs on crossroads, interurban roads, highways, and highways that circulate within cities was banned. In the cities themselves, their passage through sidewalks, pedestrian areas, crosswalks, and urban tunnels was restricted. And what PMVs were defined: they are vehicles with one or two wheels, powered by an electric motor, with a speed of 6 to 25 kilometers per hour. The rest, i.e., the most powerful and fastest, had to have the documentation required, for example, for a moped: circulation permit, registration, and insurance.
The latest legal development regarding PMVs is the obligation that those acquired as of January 22, 2024 must be certified for use. Those purchased previously have until January 2027 to acquire this certificate. The list of PMVs with certification, nowadays essential to use them on the road, can be consulted on the website of the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT).
Beyond the accident rate, another of the problems that have been detected with the growing use of PMVs have been the fires they have caused in public transport, where users board them to make a combined trip through the cities. The figures from the Mapfre Foundation study reveal how these incidents, which are potentially dangerous and have caused serious material damage, practically tripled from 2021 to 2022, when they went from 10 to 28, and decreased slightly in 2023, when they remained at 23.
This increase in fires led to the approval of restrictions on their access to the entire Renfe network, including the Ouigo and Iryo trains, in addition to completely prohibiting their access to public transport in the entire regions of Madrid, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. Cities like Seville also regulated their access for this reason, while in Cuenca users must ask for prior permission to ride with them on bicycle paths.
Given the increase in accident rates and the problems that PMVs can cause in mobility in cities, the Mapfre Foundation study also points out good practices that can be implemented to achieve the goal of safer global mobility. Among them are raising awareness about the need to use helmets and other safety devices such as lights or rear-view mirrors, guides with advice for new drivers of these vehicles, geofencing of pedestrian areas, that is, virtually restricted areas for scooters, where they cannot circulate; breathalyzer tests and campaigns to detect unsafe and dangerous practices, such as tandem riding, wheel blocking and skidding.
Furthermore, according to a study by the Royal Automobile Club of Catalonia (RACC) Mobility Club, PMV users also detect problems beyond their behavior, in elements that directly depend on the action of different governments. In fact, according to RACC Barometer of mobility for PMVs in Barcelona and its accesses, 83% of users are not satisfied with the accessibility of the network due to lack of continuity and design defects, which makes it difficult for them to comply with regulations when traveling.
Thus, they complain about having to share the road with other vehicles, especially motorized ones, and it is at these points where they break the rules the most and circulate on sidewalks and spaces reserved for pedestrians. PMVs drivers admit to carrying out risky behavior, such as driving faster than permitted, in 40% of cases, and jumping traffic lights if there are no other vehicles circulating, which 54% of users in Barcelona admit to doing. In general terms, they also admit to not knowing the bike network, which affects their choice of PMV itineraries around the city.
Write: Rafael Honrubia
