Related
The study was conducted by the City of Austin with help from the Centers for Disease Control.
Jeff Taylor, of the Austin public health department, says they were inspired by anecdotal evidence that scooters were causing an outbreak of injuries.
"In the fall, our staff were seeing more and more scooters being deployed and used in Austin and we were also hearing about injuries associated with those scooters from our EMS partners, emergency hospital staff and even from physicians in the community," Taylor said.
So Austin partnered with the CDC to see if this really was an epidemic.
They found that for three months - from September through November - they could confirm 190 injuries on scooters out of nearly a million rides taken. That's a .02 percent crash rate, something Austin transportation official Jason JonMichael calls statistically irrelevant.
Still, he says, the study found valuable information about how injuries occur.
The vast majority were first time riders, 39 percent were injured at night and 29 percent had been drinking before riding.
"It's important because it's about personal behavior. Personal behavior is critical to transportation safety," JonMichael said.
The CDC's Laurel Morano also recommends better instructions for using scooters safely, including wearing protective gear such as helmets.
Councilman Derek Green says the timing of the report is lucky for Philadelphia. State law has delayed the adoption of scooters here, so the city will be able to use the findings as it formulates regulations.