Can pedestrians safely navigate shared sidewalks with e-scooters and bicycles? A behavioral analysis using surrogate safety measures
<p>Micro-mobility vehicles, such as e-scooters and bicycles, are essential for addressing urban transportation challenges and enhancing mobility efficiency. While regulations for cyclists are generally well established, those governing e-scooters remain inconsistent, or even entirely absent in...
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2025
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| Summary: | <p>Micro-mobility vehicles, such as e-scooters and bicycles, are essential for addressing urban transportation challenges and enhancing mobility efficiency. While regulations for cyclists are generally well established, those governing e-scooters remain inconsistent, or even entirely absent in some countries. This lack of regulatory clarity has raised concerns regarding the safety of pedestrians and other road users when interacting with e-scooters in mixed-traffic environments. This study assessed and compared pedestrian avoidance behaviors when interacting with bicycles and e-scooters on shared sidewalks using data collected through a controlled experiment conducted in a virtual reality setting. Both objective measures (relative longitudinal distance at avoidance, lateral clearance, and post-encroachment time) and subjective measures (perceived safety and comfort) were used to evaluate pedestrian behaviors. The findings reveal that the behavior of micro-mobility vehicles, such as speed, longitudinal and lateral positioning are critical factors influencing both objective measures and pedestrians perceived safety. As the speed of micro-mobility vehicle increases, pedestrian initiates avoidance at progressively greater distance and experience heightened perceived risk. A high perceived safety and comfort level (≥99%) was achieved when micro-mobility vehicles traveled at 10 km/h or less, with minimum lateral clearance of approximately 0.86 m for e-scooters and 1.11 m for bicycles, corresponding to a minimum sidewalk width of 2.00 and 2.30 m, respectively. These trends highlight the need for wider sidewalks to ensure safer interactions between pedestrians and micro-mobility vehicles as their speed increases. Overall, this study underscores the importance of thoughtful infrastructure design and well-enforced speed limit to create safer and more inclusive shared mobility spaces for all urban road users.</p><h2>Other Information</h2> <p> Published in: Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour<br> License: <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</a><br>See article on publisher's website: <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2025.103407" target="_blank">https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2025.103407</a></p> |
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