By Sophia Peerzada, Safety Advocate
The NTSB published a safety research report in 2022 on micromobility recommending that states begin tracking and collecting data on crashes involving e-scooters and e-bikes. New York was listening. The state’s governor recently signed into law Senate Bill 9419 requiring accidents involving e-scooters and e-bikes to be reported.
In recent years, the use of e-scooters and e-bikes as forms of transportation has skyrocketed across the country. A major finding of our micromobility report was just how little data is available to understand the scope of injuries and fatalities associated with the use of e-scooters and e-bikes.
“We conducted the study to understand the risks associated with micromobility devices and recommend safety improvements,” says Brittany Rawlinson, PhD, who authored the report. “Unfortunately, the popularity of these devices grew so rapidly that crash reporting infrastructure wasn’t prepared to track them.”
Our safety research report made the following recommendations to the states to improve data collection:
- Add e-scooter and e-bike device codes to police crash data and guidance.
- Standardize e-bike-specific coding in injury surveillance data and guidance.
- Collect e-scooter and e-bike trip data to assess injury and fatality risk.
“The best way for our agency to improve the safety of the public’s use of micromobility vehicles is to have comprehensive evidence of the hazards that exist and what increases the risk of those hazards resulting in injuries and fatalities,” says Rawlinson. “We can only do that with better data collection.” New York has passed other laws in recent years that encourage the widespread use of micromobility devices in the state, but the passage of Senate Bill 9419 signals that it’s turning its attention to their safe use on its streets. NTSB’s Advocacy and Government Affairs teams will use this win in New York to continue to encourage other states to follow suit.
