E-scooter Program: Widely Used, Hampered by Safety Concerns

Barbara Gleason, 72, goes for regular walks along the Delta Ponds pathways in west Eugene. You can sometimes see her with her husband, Dan Gleason, 75, who will be using a walker. Diagnosed with leukemia in 2019, Dan uses the walker for balance, as he can’t see as well after his treatment.

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As they walk, a low whirring can be heard behind them before a blur of movement passes them, recounts Barbara. Given his eyesight, the encounter throws Dan off balance despite his walker. The cause of the blur, an e-scooter rider, continues gliding down the pathway. According to Barbara, e-scooters passing like this is common, both on shared use pathways and regular sidewalks across the city.

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While some of these e-scooters are privately owned, many come from Eugene’s e-scooter pilot program. The program has now reached its halfway point, now six months into its year-long run. It has seen over 125,000 trips, with 55% of people approving of the program according to data shared at a public meeting about the 2023 E-Scooter Survey.

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The pilot is the result of years of planning. Conceived in 2019, and delayed by the pandemic, the program is a three-party collaboration between the city, Cascadia Mobility and Superpedestrian. The goal is to increase Eugene’s transportation options while reducing carbon emissions.

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“It’s really important to us to have those transportation options that aren’t single occupancy vehicles,” said Shane Rhodes, a Transportation Options Manager with the city.

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But stories like Barbara’s are not uncommon. Some riders in Eugene have continued to make poor choices that can affect other people’s safety as well as their own.

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Safety Concerns

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Close encounters with e-scooters have forced other pedestrians to also be more aware of their surroundings. Sherilyn Schwartz, a Cal Young neighborhood resident, has seen many encounters herself.

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“Somebody passed us on the sidewalk and there was an elderly couple in front of me,” said Schwartz. “It really startled the woman and she fell into the man.”

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E-scooters aren’t allowed on regular sidewalks, according to Oregon state law. They can ride in bike lanes, on shared use pathways and on the street if the posted speed limit is less than 25 mph. This does mean that there are some sections of the city where riders have few options.

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“There are a number of places where scooters can’t be on the roads,” said Schwartz. “I wouldn’t want a scooter on Franklin. I think that would be too dangerous for the scooter.”

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There are other safety concerns for riders. E-scooter riders who are inattentive or distracted can put their own safety at risk.

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“I often remove one of my hands from the handles to change my music,” said Eduardo Chavez, a UO junior who recently crashed along 13th Ave. “But this time I lost control and slammed into the ground.”

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Riding one-handed comes with greater safety risks. Chavez was “overall pretty lucky,” receiving a single gash and an arm sprain. While the accident has prevented him from lifting heavy objects, he could have gotten worse off.

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“I could have easily hit my head or broken an arm if I fell slightly differently. The scooters are pretty safe, but can easily cause long term damage if used incorrectly.”

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Chavez, like many e-scooter riders, wasn’t wearing a helmet. Only 30% of riders always wear a helmet, according to the e-scooter survey. Yet, it is Oregon State law that all riders must wear a helmet, regardless of age.

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Helmets currently aren’t provided by Cascadia Mobility or Superpedestrian. When asked why they don’t wear a helmet, riders who took the city’s survey have said they don’t own one. There have been several helmet giveaways, but they are only one piece of the safety issue.

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“There’s a lot of things that we can do to frontload safety. Educating students, making the scooters safer,” said Rhodes. “But if all else fails, a helmet is an important tool when you do have a crash.”

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Poor Parking

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“This [e-scooter] was blocking the sidewalk. I tried to pick it up. It’s really heavy,” said Gleason regarding a scooter outside a medical office. “We couldn’t really get by it, so we had to go on the street.”

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Older people or those with disabilities suffer the most from ill-parked e-scooters. Scooters being parked incorrectly has been the largest complaint received by the city, according to Karen Mason, one of the transportation planners behind the program.

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“It’s been a bigger issue than we thought it would be,” said Mason. “Over the summer we’ve been implementing more and more designated park spaces.”

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According to the city website, scooters must be parked either in a designated area or as close to the curb as possible. Riders aren’t allowed to park on private property, in the street or in any way that blocks the sidewalk. That doesn’t stop people from parking them anywhere they please.

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Some areas, such as the UO campus and downtown require riders to park in designated spaces. As an incentive, riders will even get a dollar back if they end their ride at one. Yet unlike PeaceHealth bikes, which have a two dollar penalty if you don’t park at a hub, scooter riders can park anywhere.

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“There’s no true penalty to not park at a hub,” said Brodie Hylton, CEO of Cascadia Mobility. “Scooters end up sort of all over the place.”

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This can mean scooters end up anywhere from a sidewalk to the river. The pilot scooters have a GPS tracking system fitted to them. This is for tracking them down for charging, but also geofencing the scooters.

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Geofencing serves multiple purposes. It can create areas where scooters will slow down or shut off. The hope is to prevent poor parking and to keep riders out of certain areas, though it doesn’t always work.

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“Sidewalk riding is a tough one because the GPS drift,” says Rhodes. “We have areas where we have no ride zones. But people are still able to get into them because of the drift. The technology is not perfect.”

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GPS drift is when a marked out area within the program shifts from its original position. This can mean areas marked as no ride zones become rideable, and areas that were rideable stop the scooter dead.

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Improving the Experience

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Safety concerns with the program, as well as illegal behavior such as riding intoxicated, has left some people frustrated. Moving into the latter half of the pilot, the main focus for those in charge is on education.

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“We just had our survey,” said Mason. “One of the questions was if you ride scooters, do you ride them on the sidewalk and why? Some people responded that they simply don’t know that they’re not supposed to be riding on the sidewalk. So we really need to get that education further out.”

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Currently, first time users of the scooters need to take a short quiz through the app before they can ride. It asks users questions about speeds and proper use. The scooters themselves also have the rules listed on them as well.

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Further education campaigns include presentations during IntroDucktions on campus. New students who may not be familiar with e-scooters can ride them for the first time and learn the rules. If the program continues after the initial year, the hope is for there to be more in-person events like this.

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“I have a series of meetings over the next few months,” said Mason, “to bring everybody together so that we can all be like, as we look ahead to a potential year two, what have we learned so far and how do we make sure that we make it better?”

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Other education takes place in the form of signage. The Path Etiquette campaign has been in place since July 2021, with the aim to “promote courtesy and safety among all shared-use path users.” Part of this campaign involves speed limit and courtesy signs placed along the shared path system as well as lane striping.

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“We installed the first run of those and now we’re working on the second run,” said Rhodes. “We’re also going to be doing some striping in the spring. What we found is that overall people like it and it’s improving behavior. It’s really encouraging people to stay on the right side and safer passing.”

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The main focus will be on improving scooter-pedestrian interactions; making pedestrians feel safer and riders more welcome.

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“The golden rule applies. We really want people to respect other people on the path,” said Rhodes. “We call them shared use paths for a reason. There’s a lot of different people using them from people in mobility devices to bike riders.”

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Moving forward into a possible year two, more measures like these will need to be adopted. If more thought is put into how riders will interact with pedestrians, there could be increased support for the program.

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“I have no reason to want it [e-scooters] to go away,” said Gleason, “if people who are using it are behaving in a way that’s not disrespectful of other people.”

 

Click here for the city’s FAQ page on e-scooters.