Evaluating the Safety and Performance of Electric Micro-Mobility Vehicles: Comparing E-bike, E-scooter and Segway based on Objective and Subjective Data from a Field Experiment

Abstract

The rapid increase in popularity of electric micro-mobility vehicles has led to an increasing amount of injuries. A large proportion of injuries are related to the vehicles themselves, therefore, a thorough investigation of their safety is needed. The purpose of this thesis was to collect conclusive evidence for or against the safety level of e-bikes, e-scooters and Segways in terms of stability, maneuverability and rider comfort. A regular bike was used as well to compare with. Rider kinematics data were recorded by sensors mounted on each of the vehicles together with a stationary LIDAR sensor. Thirty-four voluntary participants performed four different tasks with each of the vehicles. Afterwards, they filled in a questionnaire regarding the experienced safety and performance of the vehicles. A set of performance indicators were studied to be able to compare the vehicles and establish the safety of each vehicle. Results suggest that the e-bike and the e-scooter performed very well in terms of rider comfort and stability. The e-scooter also had good maneuverability, but lacked in safety due to bad braking performance. The least safe vehicle was the Segway which was rated the least safe by the participants and performed the worst according to the performance indicators in high speed scenarios. There were however scenarios at low speed, with the Segway that had comparable results with the other vehicles. Future studies could include other micro-mobility vehicles or other tasks. Experiments in a more naturalistic settings could provide valuable data to extend the results presented in this thesis. The results from this thesis could be used to help improve the design of electric micro-mobility vehicles and contribute to guidelines for infrastructure design and policy making.