Understanding factors influencing e-scooterist crash risk: A naturalistic study of rental e-scooters in an urban area

IF 5.7 1区工程技术 Q1 ERGONOMICS

Accident; analysis and prevention Pub Date : 2024-11-12 DOI:10.1016/j.aap.2024.107839

Rahul Rajendra Pai, Marco Dozza

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

In recent years, micromobility has seen unprecedented growth, especially with the introduction of dockless e-scooters. However, the rapid emergence of e-scooters has led to an increase in crashes, resulting in injuries and fatalities, highlighting the need for in-depth analysis to understand the underlying mechanisms. While helpful in quantifying the problem, traditional crash database analysis cannot fully explain the causation mechanisms, e.g., human adaptation failures leading to safety–critical events. Naturalistic data have proven extremely valuable for understanding why crashes happen, but most studies have addressed cars and trucks.

This study is the first to systematically analyze factors contributing to crashes and near-crashes involving rental e-scooters in an urban environment, utilizing naturalistic data. The collected dataset included 6868 trips, covering 9930 km over 709 h with 4694 unique participants. We identified 61 safety–critical events, including 19 crashes and 42 near-crashes, and subsequently labeled variables associated with each event according to the codebook using video data.

Our odds ratio analysis identified that rider experience and behavior (e.g., phone usage, single-handed riding, and pack riding) significantly increase the crash risk. Given the accessibility of rental e-scooters to individuals regardless of their experience, our findings emphasize the need for rider training in addition to education. Influenced by their experience with bicycles, riders may anticipate a similar self-stabilizing mechanism in e-scooters. We found that single-handed riding, which compromises balance, poses a heightened risk, underscoring the crucial role of balance in safe e-scooter operation. Furthermore, the purpose (leisure or commute) and directness (point-to-point or detour) of the trip were also identified as factors influencing the risk, suggesting that user intent plays a role in safety–critical events. Interestingly, our analysis underscores the importance of adapting the crash and near-crash definitions when working with two-wheeled vehicles, especially those in the shared mobility system.

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了解影响电动摩托车碰撞风险的因素：对城市地区租赁电动滑板车的自然研究。

近年来，微型交通得到了前所未有的发展，特别是随着无桩电动滑板车的推出。然而，电动滑板车的迅速兴起导致撞车事故增加，造成人员伤亡，这凸显了进行深入分析以了解内在机制的必要性。传统的碰撞数据库分析虽然有助于量化问题，但无法完全解释成因机制，例如导致安全关键事件的人为适应失灵。事实证明，自然数据对于了解碰撞事故发生的原因非常有价值，但大多数研究都是针对轿车和卡车的。本研究首次利用自然数据对城市环境中涉及租赁电动滑板车的碰撞和险些碰撞的因素进行了系统分析。所收集的数据集包括 6868 次出行，行程 9930 公里，历时 709 小时，共有 4694 名参与者。我们确定了 61 起安全关键事件，包括 19 起撞车事件和 42 起濒临撞车事件，随后根据使用视频数据编写的编码手册对每起事件的相关变量进行了标注。我们的几率分析表明，骑行者的经验和行为（如使用手机、单手骑行和驮背骑行）会显著增加碰撞风险。鉴于租赁电动滑板车对个人的可及性，无论其经验如何，我们的研究结果都强调了除教育之外对骑行者进行培训的必要性。受自行车骑行经验的影响，骑行者可能会期待电动滑板车具有类似的自我稳定机制。我们发现，单手骑行会影响平衡，从而增加了风险，这突出了平衡在电动滑板车安全操作中的关键作用。此外，出行目的（休闲或通勤）和直接性（点到点或绕行）也被认为是影响风险的因素，这表明用户意图在安全关键事件中发挥着作用。有趣的是，我们的分析强调了在处理两轮车辆，尤其是共享交通系统中的两轮车辆时，调整碰撞和濒临碰撞定义的重要性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Accident; analysis and prevention Multiple-

CiteScore

11.90

自引率

16.90%

发文量

264

审稿时长

48 days

期刊介绍： Accident Analysis & Prevention provides wide coverage of the general areas relating to accidental injury and damage, including the pre-injury and immediate post-injury phases. Published papers deal with medical, legal, economic, educational, behavioral, theoretical or empirical aspects of transportation accidents, as well as with accidents at other sites. Selected topics within the scope of the Journal may include: studies of human, environmental and vehicular factors influencing the occurrence, type and severity of accidents and injury; the design, implementation and evaluation of countermeasures; biomechanics of impact and human tolerance limits to injury; modelling and statistical analysis of accident data; policy, planning and decision-making in safety.