Survey Says: Fear of Cars Drives Scooter Riders to Sidewalks

Taylor Stevens shares findings of a recent study conducted by Lime about scooter rider behavior in Salt Lake City.

"The email survey of 614 Lime users whose latest ride was in Salt Lake City found that sidewalk ridership increases by 310% when no bike lane is available; when one is, 82.2% say they ride in it," writes Stevens.

"Seven in 10 respondents said they would never ride on sidewalks if there were protected bike lanes, and more than 50% said painted bike lanes would help. Nearly half said greater enforcement of scooter regulations by police with a $50 ticket would have the same effect."

According to Stevens, sidewalk scooting has been one of the largest challenges reported with the four scooter share companies currently operating in the city. One hospital reported a 160 percent spike in emergency room visits involving electric scooters in September 2018 compared to the previous year (electric scooter companies weren't in operation during the same time period the previous year).