Nov 22, 2022
For shared scooters to be a viable urban transport option in the long term, safety’s essential for riders and pedestrians. This is especially the case for the most vulnerable road users, such as children, people with disabilities, and the elderly.
To help prevent scooter collisions on pavements, we’ve partnered with Drover, an AI-based solutions provider for shared mobility. Drover’s PathPilot device enables automated detection of proper scooter parking and scooters being ridden on the pavement in cities where it’s prohibited.
Bolt’s partnership with Drover helps to comply with local regulations and encourage safe riding habits.
PathPilot consists of a video camera attached to the front of each scooter. Then, an AI system continually assesses the video feed to determine whether a scooter is being ridden on a pavement, street, or bike lane and whether a parked scooter is located in an appropriate location.
It’s similar to the lane-keeping and parking assist systems available on premium cars. Scooter safety is, therefore, improving at an accelerated rate since it took decades (and even centuries) for cars to get this kind of technology.
When PathPilot detects riding on the pavement in cities where it’s not allowed, it alerts users to get off the pavement and warns pedestrians that might not otherwise hear the scooter coming.
We tested PathPilot in several European cities in 2022, and the system proved to be up to 95% accurate in differentiating between pavements, bike lanes, and roadways.
Adding PathPilot to Bolt scooters is an important step in improving overall road safety by helping protect riders and other road users. And given that the most vulnerable road users are predominantly on pavements, PathPilot will help ensure that the growing popularity of shared scooters doesn’t raise safety risks for those who most need pavements to be clear of potential hazards.
However, while PathPilot can play a crucial role in keeping pedestrians and riders safe, cities shouldn’t lose sight of the safety risks faced by scooter riders.
Requiring scooters to use roadways is indeed likely to reduce the risk of collisions with pedestrians. However, considering that 65% of Bolt scooter collisions with third parties in 2021 involved motor vehicles rather than pedestrians, cities may actually be increasing overall road safety risk if they require scooter riders to use roadways without taking adequate steps to protect them from motor vehicles.
This is especially true given that crashes between scooters and motor vehicles are more likely to lead to serious injuries than crashes between scooters and pedestrians. For example, according to the International Transport Forum, 80% of fatal scooter crashes involve a motor vehicle.
In short, PathPilot is a breakthrough solution to make shared scooters safer. But cities and shared mobility operators must remember that such innovations aren’t a silver bullet to address all concerns.
There’s still no substitute for effective education, smart regulation, and safe infrastructure — all of which can be advanced by dialogue and collaboration between shared mobility operators and cities.
Ultimately, cities should keep in mind that motor vehicles pose the greatest safety risk to other road users, such as pedestrians, cyclists, and scooter riders. And that taking steps to replace private cars with other forms of mobility will have multiple benefits in terms of safety and much more. This should be a priority, alongside initiatives to improve scooter safety for riders and other road users.
PathPilot is the latest safety feature to be added to Bolt’s innovative toolkit. Other features include the Cognitive Reaction Test, which checks whether a person is intoxicated before they start a ride, and the tandem riding prevention system — a patent pending solution designed to prevent multiple people from riding one scooter.
Bolt is the first operator to introduce a Beginner mode that limits a scooter’s speed to 15 km/h — allowing new users to learn to ride in a safe environment. This is especially important as research has indicated that up to one-third of scooter crashes happen on a user’s first ride.
Beyond our app features, we focus on safe scooter hardware, including the latest Bolt 5 scooter and our new scooter charging docks that help declutter the streets.
We also educate riders and ensure safety by using multiple channels like:
As a result of this continuous focus on safety improvement, Bolt scooter injuries in 2021 reduced by 26% and accidents by 12% compared to the previous year, while the number of rides increased by 400% during the same period!
For future updates on our safety data, stay tuned for the next edition of our safety report in 2023.
