Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
Neither of the bolded statements are statistically true. They're no more risky than cycling, and much less costly than cycling, driving, falling, playing sports, working out, even walking in terms of total burden on our health care system.
I'm fine with mitigating risk, but you and a few others are treating e-scooters like a boogeyman of danger. The evidence does not support your position, and the evidence you're using to try and do that is being done so without considering any context at all.
140ish visits to the emergency room... sounds really scary! Except... it's not... over 500 people are hospitalized every year from slipping on ice while they're walking. Not just emergency room visits... hospitalized. Think about that.
|
Context is the key for sure. What you're missing is that the average escooter trip lasts 12.8 minutes. The time spent doing every single activity you mention is way way higher. If people only did one ski run a day, and 1 in 1000 went to the hospital, it would be non stop triage and chopper lifts all day every day. You're not comparing anything correctly. Compare walking in the summer to escooters. There are likely close to zero slip and falls and very very few accidents compared to the number of walkers. 7500 people a year go to the hospital from bike accidents in Canada. 200k people a day in Vancouver make a bike trip of 45 minutes or greater. I'm not gong to try to add up nation wide bike trips but I don't think you're creating a same ballpark comparison.
Just a quick look at one study comparing escooter to bike sharing injuries...
https://electric-scooter.guide/guide...stin-portland/
It was published in the WaPo but you can't see it without paying. You're 2.5x-18x's more likely to get injured on an escooter than a bike sharing trip. I'm sure there are lots of reasons, equipment, ability, regulation. We'll figure it out eventually, but there's going to be a lot of cost in the mean time. Experiential learning in this case seems dumb to me.