Good day my good friend.
Well done France. You did good. We need more places in the world to do this sort of good. And to do it quickly. We should be more French, you know.
If you have any suggestions for interesting news items or bits of research to include in this newsletter, you can email me.
James
The Truth on E-scooter Safety
You can’t handle the truth. In all seriousness, though, the question as to quite how safe e-scooters is more difficult to answer than you might think. The picture in terms of subjective safety is very complicated indeed, and in some instances depends on who you ask. The number of reported casualties of e-scooter riders in the UK stood at 1458 in 2022. But can you rely on this officially reported data?
A common problem is the difference between data reported by police (which is the basis of road casualty statistics in the UK) and that reported by hospitals. Which is where this research comes in. It says that, yes, there is a difference in reported serious casualties. But because the differences are similar to those observed for other road safety statistics, we can still infer general trends from both datasets. As to whether e-scooters are safe or not, I will leave that to you to decide.
Bikes and AVs – A difficult relationship
Autonomous vehicles and bicycles. A relationship that can best be described as complicated. On account of AVs apparently not noticing bikes and having a tendency of ploughing into their pedestrian brethren (though that was down to human error as well). So there is a lot of suspicion there. But does that translate into strong feelings of safety around autonomous cars?
A study – based on hypothetical scenarios, so treat with caution – has made an attempt to answer this question. And the results show that older male cyclists are less inclined to share the road with autonomous vehicles (no comment from me on that one). As well as cyclists who have been in a collision with a car recently – which I completely understand.
Random things
These links are meant to make you think about the things that affect our world in transport, and not just think about transport itself. I hope that you enjoy them.
Climate scientists flee Twitter as hostility surges following Musk’s takeover (France24)
Ford Decides It Won’t Kill AM Radio After All (The Verge)
Crypto sector gets its first set of global rules from watchdog (Reuters)
Toward a Leisure Ethic (Hedgehog Review)
Something interesting
What’s this? Oh, nothing. Just Montreal showing how urban transformation is done.
If you do nothing else today, then do this
The International Transport Forum published its annual Outlook report yesterday. You should read it. With a stiff drink, if you don’t like bad climate news.
Mobility Matters 