In the last decade, micromobility ridership, or the use of personal transportation devices like bicycles, scooters and other small devices, has seen increasing growth. According to the latest data from the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), since 2010 people in the United States have taken 342 million trips on shared bikes and scooters. In 2019 alone, there was a 60% increase in trips from the previous year with 136 million trips on shared bikes, e-bikes and scooters.
As communities have shifted how they travel in response to the COVID pandemic, micromobility modes like shared bikes and scooters have in some cases emerged as viable options to make essential trips. Ensuring the safety of these emergent modes, however, has been a concern both pre- and during the pandemic. To address the need for more safety initiatives around micromobility use, the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) released a new report, "Understanding and Tackling Micromobility: Transportation's New Disruptor" that takes a look at the rise in personal transportation device (PTD) use, the types of challenges that are occuring, and what states and localities are doing to address safety concerns.
Addressing Micromobility's Challenges
The report explores six micromobility challenges and the role that State Highway Safety Offices (SHSOs) and their partners can play
in addressing them:
- Oversight: The statutes and regulations governing PTDs vary from state to state and/or locality to locality, making it difficult for riders and other road users to know what is allowed and for law enforcement officials to address unsafe behaviors.
- Funding: The current U.S. surface transportation funding law—the FAST Act—does not include dedicated funding for micromobility, despite a decade of steady growth.
- Data Collection: Micromobility-involved crashes and injuries are likely underreported due to the lack of a universal reporting standard.
- Enforcement: Most cities require providers to inform riders about safe operating rules, but enforcement of those rules is the responsibility of local law enforcement officials. That effort, however, may be hampered by the lack of a state micromobility statute and/or local ordinance and little or no officer training.
- Infrastructure: Separating transportation modes is the most effective way to reduce crashes. If separate infrastructure does not exist, micromobility riders will go where they feel safe and innovate based on what is available.
- Education: Education is essential for ensuring micromobility users operate devices safely and respectfully and other road and sidewalk users are accepting of this mode. But public outreach is resource intensive and cannot be the sole responsibility of cities and/or providers. Other partners must be tapped to help foster widespread public engagement.
Download the full report and visit the GHSA website to learn more and access related resources.