Riding down King Street amongst the Old Town traffic.
E-scooters and e-bikes are part of the transportation equation now and that also means they are part of the road hazard rate too. A Consumer Product Safety Commission study done in late 2023 shows that the injury rate on "micromobility" items like scooters and bicycles goes up each year by about 20 percent.
These accidents are seen in more frequently in children 14 years and younger, and they star in the safety video the CPSC released called “CPSC Micromobility, Be a Champion of eScooter Safety.” The number of injuries is going up with the popularity of e-scooters and e-bikes. In 2017, there were 751 injuries on e-bicycles, and in just five years that number had spiked to 23,493 CPSC said. At the same time, e-scooter injuries rose from 8,566 to 56,847.
Some nearby homeowners are not happy with this transportation option.
At first look, scooter riders are flawlessly gliding along, steering clear of obstacles without a care in the world, but it’s not that easy. “Studies have shown that first-time riders especially are getting injured,” said the narrator of a Consumer Product Safety Commission video “Scooter Safety 101.” Riding in the street seemed to be a bad side of the scooters and this could be related to the equipment on a scooter. The wheels are small so a hard riding surface like a street is appealing to the riders. “If you love bike lanes, that’s your safest bet,” they said in the video.
The Alexandria Health Department did a study of e-scooter injuries in 2019 and found that from Jan. 1 to Aug. 30, 2019, 10 cases of e-scooter related injuries were identified using ESSENCE, a surveillance system used by the Virginia Department of Health (VDH). ESSENCE uses hospital and urgent care center data to analyze chief complaint and discharge diagnosis codes from participating facilities.
Around the Fairfax County area, there are plenty of paved bike trails and bike lanes but not all allow scooters. On the Mount Vernon Bike Trail that goes along the Potomac River, the rules state “motorized vehicles, including skateboards, bicycles, scooters, and Segways are not allowed on the Mount Vernon Trail.” Motorized is the key word there.
Some scooters are available for rent off the web and the user rents the scooter as a mode of transportation, rides them to the desired destination and just leaves them off to the side of roads or trails for others to rent and head the other way. Scooter companies such as Bird, Lime and Scoot are some of the scooter makers seen on the street.
This has caused some ill feelings for people that see abandoned scooters around town. In November 2019, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors addressed the e-scooter phenomenon including the safety and clutter factor of scooters left around on the roadside. One of the supervisors referred to an email from a constituent who wrote that scooters had been “abandoned on sidewalks, private yards and paths through woods and neighborhood surrounding George Mason University.” This is one of the strikes against the scooter phenomenon.