57% of the Israeli public believes that shared scooters should be outlawed, according to a new survey conducted this month by the "Green Light" association, against the background of the Paris municipality's decision to ban the rental services of 15,<> shared scooters starting this September, following a poll it conducted among residents of the French capital.
According to the survey, 51% of the public is very concerned about being involved in an electric scooter accident, and the same proportion of the public indicated that most of the riders they saw in the past year did not wear a helmet (compared to 17% who claimed the opposite) – indicating the ineffectiveness of enforcement policy and the lack of public awareness of the importance of helmets.
The findings of the survey are reinforced by data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, according to which in 2022 the number of casualties in road accidents involving an electric scooter increased by 10 per cent to 1,469 people (compared with 1,335 injuries in 2021), and the number of serious injuries increased by 27.5 per cent – from 214 in 2021 to 271 the following year. In each of 2021 and 2022, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, five people were killed in these accidents.
Scooter riders in Tel Aviv (the subjects have no connection to the information), Photo: Yehoshua Yosef
What is said here about the electric scooter, which in recent years has become part of the landscape in Israel in general and in Gush Dan in particular, also led the survey participants to the obvious insight: 62% of the respondents declared that they would not allow their children to ride this vehicle, in the present or in the future, and only 16% responded that they would allow it.
Operatively, 36% of the respondents supported attaching a license number to electric scooters, believing that it would help to a great extent in reducing road accidents (compared to 13% who did not think so). At the same time, 37% of respondents claimed that the more efficient way is to improve infrastructure and build dedicated riding paths for electric scooters. 32 per cent supported harsher penalties and 25 per cent increased enforcement.
"Riding trails instead of information"
Attorney Yaniv Yaakov, CEO of Or Yarok, said following the survey's findings, "The public is troubled by the behavior of riders, fears being harmed by them, and believes that the way to reduce accidents is by paving segregated safe riding paths, instead of focusing ineffectively on public relations alone.
Shared scooters in Paris, photo: AP
"Shared scooters occupy a central place in the discourse, not only in Israel but in many other cities around the world, and therefore scooter sharing companies must contribute to road safety and encourage riders to obey traffic laws. We must not accept with indifference the jungle and transportation chaos in city centers, and this situation must be changed by the Ministry of Transport and Road Safety."
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