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E-Bikes Riskier to Ride Than E-Scooters and Bikes, Study Suggests


JerrySTL

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https://gizmodo.com/e-bikes-riskier-to-ride-than-e-scooters-and-bikes-stud-1840664132

Ed Cara
Yesterday 5:00PM

People riding electric-powered bikes are more likely to risk serious injury than those on conventional bikes and motorized scooters, according to a recent study. But e-scooters have their own unique health risks, too.

The research, published this November in the journal Injury Prevention, looked at data on injuries caused by consumer products collected by the U.S. government from emergency rooms across the country. The authors compared patterns of injuries reported between 2000 and 2017 caused by e-bikes, e-scooters, and pedal-powered bikes to one another.

During those years, they found 17 percent of injuries related to e-bikes were more serious internal injuries like internal bleeding. That’s more than double than the percentage of internal injuries seen with scooters or bicycles. Injured e-bike riders were also more likely to need hospitalization than the other groups. And e-bike injuries were three times more likely to have involved collisions with pedestrians than either group.

E-scooter injuries, on the other hand, were three times more likely to involve concussions than e-bikes and more likely to cause fractured bones. More people also got hurt overall on e-scooters than on e-bikes, though that’s at least partly due to the greater popularity of the former. During the study’s length, there were some 130,000 injuries related to scooters, compared to around 3,000 e-bike injuries.

The same study found conventional bikes caused more than 9 million injuries. They’re even more popular than either e-scooters or e-bikes, though, with around half of all households owning one. And compared to e-bikes and scooters, we know a lot more about how risky (and good for our health) riding bikes can be.

“We don’t know a lot about the overall risks and benefits of electric-powered scooters and e-bikes,” lead author Charles DiMaggio, director of the injury research program at New York University Langone Health’s division of trauma and surgical critical care, told Reuters via email Wednesday.

The authors suggest that greater max speed of e-bikes and e-scooters is to blame for at least some of the increased risk of injury seen with them compared to bikes. But while riders could do more to keep themselves safe, such as voluntarily wearing helmets and not riding drunk, cities should pick up some of the regulatory slack as well, especially if these products can motivate people to try greener forms of transportation.

Many cities are struggling with how to best regulate the use of e-bikes and e-scooters, especially those rented out by ride-sharing companies, DiMaggio noted. And there are plenty of things cities could require or implement to create a safer riding experience, such as docking stations, more dedicated bike lanes, and education programs. Companies, meanwhile, should probably do more to prevent their rented e-bikes from going up in flames or otherwise breaking down.

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I'm not surprised. In time, scooters will kill more people than the plague. I know some people like the gov't sponsored rental programs. Is this the same gov't that wants to be sure I am safe by enacting bike specific laws and mandates? I see those electric rental bikes and scooters but the riders are not wearing helmets. Another thing is they jump lanes of traffic and break all the traffic laws. Then you have the people who buy an electric conveyance and act totally stupid. You aren't bestowed with the ability to survive, you learn it.

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Let's unpack that.

I'd bet the people that are getting serious injuries are using motors 3 to 4 times more powerful than mine, on cheap bikes.

IOW, they get going real fast and zoom past not only their skill level, but what the bike is capable of managing safely.

I've seen other reports about injuries that say head injuries are common on all sorts of electrically powered wheeled widgets. Prob not wearing a helmet. I always wear one.

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31 minutes ago, donkpow said:

The article does say that head injuries are more common with the scooters.

It usually takes time for a culture to absorb a new technology. It can also take a lot longer than that. Netherlands prob has the best cycling infrastruture, but look at how long it took.

Clearly, all this stuff is going to have to be regulated.

 

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On 12/27/2019 at 7:19 PM, JerrySTL said:

The same study found conventional bikes caused more than 9 million injuries.

What kind of study is that? How do they know what caused the injuries?  When a car or truck hits a cyclist by not giving the required distance for safe passing those injuries were not caused by the bicycle.

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What's the average speed of the e-Bikes, e-scooters, and Bikes involved in acciidents?

I wonder if the e-Bike users tend to be less skilled than pedal Bike users or if they are able to go faster than pedal Bikes and e-scooters and more easily get into accidents with serious injuries.

There are a couple hills with curves where I easily could go 40 mph on my mountain bike, but I slow myself down a little because I would otherwise exceed the speed where I feel skilled enough to handle the ride.  Almost every time I download my Garmin Edge 510 after a ride, it shows I hit 29 mph max. on those hills and I'm not at all tempted to try for 30.  Here's one of those hills where the terrain drops strongly from mid right to upper left to lower left.  Approaching the horseshoe curve counterclockwise from the heights on the right, you can see a long way past the bottom left of the picture - which tells you if the trail is clear of other cyclists, people pushing baby carriages, etc. and you can fly around the curve.  But the centrifugal force is pushing you toward the outside of the asphalt trail as you reach the trees on the right and, at my skill level, I find myself fighting to keep my bike at least a foot on the asphalt so I won't slam into the woods.

I've walked Jake through this trail often and know there are some cyclists that fly down the hill at 40 mph on road bikes - I walk Jake on the lawn inside the curve anytime I see cyclists - but I'm not that skilled on my bike.  Also. white tail deer occasionally sprint between the woods on the left and that group of trees inside the curve, and I have to react quick and lean back on the leash because I know 100 lb Jake gets excited, forgets he's on a leash, and tries to chase them

1901365005_HorseshoeCurveBWITrail.JPG.4fdeec4e9a1f5919e25a9c7755458b47.JPG

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Friday, I saw a kid who looked around 8-9 years-old, on a scooter at the edge of an always-congested, 3 lane plus exit lane major highway, waiting to cross where there was no light or crossing lane.  Scared the hell out me - fortunately he didn't try to cross when I passed by.  If that was an e-scooter and he began to cross, how easy would it be for him to stop if he needed to and how fast would he enter the highway before vehicles realized he was doing it?

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I haven’t overshot a curve on a bike in many years. I learned when my bones were strong and when I healed fast. To do that at my age I might not survive. All of my crashes in the past 15 years were due to other things. FWIW I didn’t always crash when I overshot a tight curve. One night on a motorcycle I didn’t make a sharp curve and went into a cornfield. The rows we’re running parallel to the road so about 15 rows into the field I got turned so I could ride out the row until it came to the end of the field. At the end of the field I came back onto the road and rejoined my friend I was riding with. He told me I was crazy. I didn’t tell him I didn’t do it on purpose.:hapydance: That was on my 750 Suzuki. 

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13 hours ago, MickinMD said:

I wonder if the e-Bike users tend to be less skilled than pedal Bike users or if they are able to go faster than pedal Bikes and e-scooters and more easily get into accidents with serious injuries.

People are atrocious on all forms of bikes, scooters, and skateboards, so I'll bet it is the greater potential for high speed and harder crashes.

13 hours ago, MickinMD said:

There are a couple hills with curves where I easily could go 40 mph on my mountain bike, but I slow myself down a little because I would otherwise exceed the speed where I feel skilled enough to handle the ride.  Almost every time I download my Garmin Edge 510 after a ride, it shows I hit 29 mph max. on those hills and I'm not at all tempted to try for 30.  Here's one of those hills where the terrain drops strongly from mid right to upper left to lower left.  Approaching the horseshoe curve counterclockwise from the heights on the right, you can see a long way past the bottom left of the picture - which tells you if the trail is clear of other cyclists, people pushing baby carriages, etc. and you can fly around the curve.  But the centrifugal force is pushing you toward the outside of the asphalt trail as you reach the trees on the right and, at my skill level, I find myself fighting to keep my bike at least a foot on the asphalt so I won't slam into the woods.

I've walked Jake through this trail often and know there are some cyclists that fly down the hill at 40 mph on road bikes - I walk Jake on the lawn inside the curve anytime I see cyclists - but I'm not that skilled on my bike

I doubt many ever hit 40. Forty is an effort.  30 is simple.  You can check via your Garmin next time (if you have Strava) and see the segment's stats, and likely, for a quick sharp downhill, folks just don't have the real estate to hit 40.  But, yeah, hitting a deer at 40 (or 30, 20, 10 mph) would SUCK!

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49 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

People are atrocious on all forms of bikes, scooters, and skateboards, so I'll bet it is the greater potential for high speed and harder crashes.

I doubt many ever hit 40. Forty is an effort.  30 is simple.  You can check via your Garmin next time (if you have Strava) and see the segment's stats, and likely, for a quick sharp downhill, folks just don't have the real estate to hit 40.  But, yeah, hitting a deer at 40 (or 30, 20, 10 mph) would SUCK!

I could hit 40 on that particular downhill on my mountain bike shortly after the counterclockwise trail meets the treeline - I have to squeeze the brake levers to keep it down to 29 mph, which I do because both my lack of confidence in my skill at 40 mph and flying off the curve and into the trees due to centrifugal force if I'm going too fast when the curve straightens out scares the hell out of me.  I've seen some nuts or highly skilled cyclists on road bikes going about that fast flying down that hill.

The paved trail dropping off to the bottom left of the satellite map continues at a light downhill grade with a few up-and-down sections and a bike can coast without losing speed all along it until a slight rise before a gentler downhil area.

Prior to reaching the high point of the BWI Airport Bike Trail on the lower right of the pic, heading left, a bicylist doing the 10.6 mile trail loop counterclockwise has risen a few hundred feet in altitude from the typical starting point 4.85 miles away.  This horseshoe curve plus the next mile past it gives a lot of the altitude back!

1715088994_HorseshoeCurveBWITrail.JPG.320fcb6623969bdfeb239b5a6ac536e5.JPG 

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17 hours ago, MickinMD said:

I could hit 40 on that particular downhill on my mountain bike shortly after the counterclockwise trail meets the treeline - I have to squeeze the brake levers to keep it down to 29 mph, which I do because both my lack of confidence in my skill at 40 mph and flying off the curve and into the trees due to centrifugal force if I'm going too fast when the curve straightens out scares the hell out of me.  I've seen some nuts or highly skilled cyclists on road bikes going about that fast flying down that hill.

The paved trail dropping off to the bottom left of the satellite map continues at a light downhill grade with a few up-and-down sections and a bike can coast without losing speed all along it until a slight rise before a gentler downhil area.

Prior to reaching the high point of the BWI Airport Bike Trail on the lower right of the pic, heading left, a bicylist doing the 10.6 mile trail loop counterclockwise has risen a few hundred feet in altitude from the typical starting point 4.85 miles away.  This horseshoe curve plus the next mile past it gives a lot of the altitude back!

1715088994_HorseshoeCurveBWITrail.JPG.320fcb6623969bdfeb239b5a6ac536e5.JPG 

I found your segment on Strava (saving you a headache)!

It's definitely a quick little kicker, and, from your description of easily hitting 30mph, you might be able to make a dent in the Strava leaderboard. 40mph still seems unlikely for most (all?), and that is likely because of the tight turns approaching Elkridge Landing.

image.thumb.png.179b92cb76b47434817fff4d02e81052.png

image.thumb.png.83954093b2f952b6d97284f2ebc9c5dd.png

 

 

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