How to promote road safety?

As cities embrace micromobility as a sustainable solution to urban transport challenges, the road to success isn’t without obstacles. While micromobility has the potential to reduce congestion, improve air quality, and promote healthier lifestyles, issues like road safety, infrastructure gaps, and regulatory concerns continue to hinder its widespread adoption. Understanding these challenges and addressing them systematically is key to ensuring that micromobility fulfills its promise.

The Safety Challenge One of the most pressing concerns in micromobility is road safety. A recent OECD report on micromobility safety highlights that electric scooters, bicycles, and other lightweight vehicles account for a growing share of road incidents. For instance, in many European cities, injuries among micromobility users have increased as their adoption has surged. Lack of dedicated infrastructure, unclear regulations, and conflicts with motor vehicles are some of the primary contributors to these accidents.

According to a European Transport Safety Council report, pedestrians and micromobility users are the most vulnerable road users, often lacking adequate protections in mixed-traffic environments. This makes creating safe and accessible infrastructure a top priority.

To promote micromobility, the safety, convenience, and feasibility of micromobility needs to be increased, in combination with policies to reduce and restrict car use (Piatkowski et al., 2019).

To promote micromobility, there is a need to:

Make it safe & direct:

Create safe infrastructure: establish a dedicated and well-connected micromobility network, with segregated paths where vehicle speed is greater than 30 km/h or where the volume of motorised vehicles is high.
Establish and enforce micromobility parking policy and designate parking areas for micromobility.
Reduce speeds: Implement a 30 km/h (or lower) speed limit in areas with high micromobility use and establish low speed limits for micromobility vehicles in pedestrian or shared zones, e.g. ~6-10 km/h. Implement traffic calming measures and create shared spaces where vulnerable road users are prioritised.

Restrict private car access and reduce vehicle speeds; prioritise micromobility traffic flows through solutions such as ‘filtered permeability’ and ‘contraflows’.

Implement and enforce road safety measures, such as limiting speed, providing training to road users, enforcing rules against impaired driving and riding, and protecting vulnerable road users through presumed liability, also makes micromobility use safer.

Recommend helmet use, particularly to young or inexperienced users, but do not make it mandatory by law, as this has been shown to discourage micromobility, and shared mobility in particular. Safe infrastructure makes micromobility safer for all.

Make it attractive & cool:

Exposure and experience are key to forming new mobility habits.
Organise educational and promotional activities, such as ‘safe routes to school’, mobility challenges, ‘cycle/scoot to work’ schemes, cycling events, etc. Educate micromobility users about road safety rules and how to safely participate in traffic, other road users on how to behave around vulnerable road users and promote their safety, as well as (micro)mobility planners and policy-makers on how to prioritise road safety for vulnerable road users.
Create awareness raising campaigns on the benefits of sustainable mobility, green travel and the need to shift away from private car use.

Make it happen:

Promote the creation, adoption and implementation of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMP) by the city administration to create a clear transport vision for the city, improve accessibility, and provide high-quality and sustainable mobility to and within the urban area.
Promote the creation, adoption and implementation of Green Travel Plans for local companies and organisations by encouraging sustainable mobility choices made by their staff and visitors, reducing private car usage, promoting public transport use, walking, cycling and other sustainable and healthier modes of transport instead as well as sustainable logistics such as the use of (electric) cargo bikes.
Create coherence with existing urban and transport planning policies (e.g. SUMP documents), revising, aligning and implementing these, and coordinate between departments.
Adopt a legal framework to protect vulnerable road users, e.g. presumed liability and the new transport hierarchy.
Adopt design standards and guidelines for infrastructure to ensure safety, quality and cohesion, including for traffic calming measures.
Provide signage and information about sustainable transport options.
Ensure there is real public participation, including the opportunity for users and potential users of micromobility to participate in discussions and decisions.

A Safer Future for Micromobility is possible.

The challenges facing micromobility are significant, but they are not insurmountable. With proactive measures, innovative thinking, and a commitment to creating safer urban environments, cities can unlock the full potential of micromobility. By addressing safety concerns head-on, we can ensure that micromobility remains a viable, sustainable, and equitable option for all.

Let’s work together to make our cities safer, smarter, and more connected—one bike lane and e-scooter at a time.