Personal mobility devices (PMDs) have seen a market boom in recent years. These vehicles are seen as an easy way to travel around the city, and they contribute to solving the “last-mile” problem. This report focuses mainly on electric scooters (e-scooters). Shared e-scooters are mainly used for leisure activities, during the weekend and by young men. Privately owned e-scooters are more often used for commuting. A high proportion of crashes with a PMD are caused by falls. The most common injuries for (shared) e-scooter users are head injuries, followed by fractures of the lower and upper limbs, soft tissue injuries, and injuries and fractures of the face and neck. Increasing helmet use would prevent head injuries.

Active enforcement of the legal blood alcohol content, speeding, and positioning on the roadway is advisable. Speed is also a key factor wherever vulnerable road users such as e-scooter users mix with motor vehicles, therefore lower speed limits such as a 30 km/h limit in urban areas could bring safety benefits. It has been suggested that micromobility vehicles need to operate in a regulatory framework that defines where they can be used, at what speed, after which training, as of what age and in compliance with which safety rules...

P.14 Hospital studies show that drink-driving is a problem among e-scooter users, just as it is among other road users (Leyendecker et al., 2023). The magnitude of the problem is unclear, but the percentage of escooter users in hospital who were under the influence of alcohol is higher compared to the number of car drivers hospitalised due to alcohol abuse (Badeau et al., 2019; Dhillon et al., 2020; Stormann et al., 2020; Yarmohammadi et al., 2020).

P.15 Since a large part of the literature deals with e-scooters, most of the measures suggested apply to this type of vehicle. Wherever possible, we try to include measures aimed at all PMDs. For e-scooters, poor road surface conditions, e-scooter speed, riders under the influence of alcohol or drugs, inexperienced users and lack of helmet use combined with the limited stability and high acceleration of an e-scooter contribute to the cause and severity of injuries. The OECD/ITF (2024) as well as the European Commission (European Commission et al., 2024) have developed recommendations which address these issues in relation to e-scooters' (lack of) safety.

P.17 Since alcohol seems to play a substantial role in e-scooter crashes (see Section 4.4), communication and active enforcement of the legal blood alcohol content should also include users of PMDs/e-scooters alongside other road users. Another option is for e-scooter sharing companies to install motion sensors on their vehicles to detect excessive wobbly motion and reduce the vehicle speed in situations where the rider is impaired by alcohol, drugs, a pillion rider or for any other reason (OECD/ITF, 2020)