#escooters

As someone whose relatives have escooters, and someone who has seen a lot of close calls with strangers, I wanna share a little-known bit of advice for anyone who's looking into escooters, or who already has one:

If you're on an escooter, you get the most protection by wearing a downhill or full-face helmet!

DO NOT GO HELMET-LESS!

By 'downhill' or 'full face', I mean the helmets that bmx riders use, or motorcycle riders wear, respectively. It sounds like overkill but here's the thing:

Escooters have a very high center of gravity because you're upright on them, and they have small wheels that don't absorb impact very well. It's super easy to go over your handle bars if you even hit a tiny pothole! According to this study where 212 patients presented to an emergency room, 11.8% of the patients had dental injuries

A lot of these patients presented with facial lacerations and facial fractures. Overall, 44% of patients needed surgery (5.9% needed major surgery and 38.2% needed minor surgery), and 50% needed maxillofacial follow-up

All 212 patients in this study received a head or face injury. 82% of patients didn't wear a helmet

Some more articles explaining dental injuries from escooter use:

Dental injuries on the rise thanks to e-scooter use

New study from U of A professor warns of dangers of scooter usage

In this Korean study, most patients without a helmet suffered some kind of facial trauma

This isn't just a matter of speed, either. If you're not convinced how often people go over the handlebars at lower speeds too, check out the first 25 seconds of this video by Electric Scooter Guide. That's a lot of faceplants at lower speeds! Or if you want a full playlist of people going over their handlebars, I've got you covered. Again see how many of them are faceplants!

And at higher speeds? It's not good. MAJOR TRIGGER WARNING for gore and death: here you will find a graphic picture of someone who was in an escooter accident, they weren't wearing a helmet and they sadly lost their life

I'll link some reddit posts of close calls where the posters were really glad to be wearing downhill/full face helmets, these are either text-only posts, or simple pics of scratched-up helmets: 1 2 3

Most of these accidents don't even involve other people or vehicles! According to this infographic, 80.2% of escooter accidents are 'falls':

So, now what?

If you don't currently have a helmet and are considering getting one, yay! Your first impulse might be to go out and buy a regular bicycle helmet, but remember: a lot of these injuries happen around your jaw and the front of your face! A bicycle helmet doesn't protect that part! When you fall on an escooter, you're likely to fall in ways that are different from a fall on a bike. So consider a downhill helmet (or a full-face, if you wanna channel your inner motorhead)!

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PATREON

E-scooters could be a great way to solve traffic congestion in big cities, and the companies that sell them could make a ton of money. Wait a second, they lose thousands of dollars on every scooter they make?? What's the plan here? And why do people keep throwing the scooters in the river? Find out on today's episode of Desperate Acts of Capitalism!

“BIG THINGS ARE COMING” MERCH:

Transportation committee wants more e-scooters in 2021 despite ‘higgledy-piggledy’ placings

Article content continued The results from the 2021 season could ultimately decide if e-scooter rentals will remain in Ottawa. Phillip Turcotte, chair of the city’s accessibility advisory committee, said eight of the 10 members of his committee don’t want the city to continue with the e-scooter pilot in 2021 under the program recommendations. Downtown resident Linda Williams told the committee…

Urban travel is a particularly topical issue and sustainable transport is a growing trend.