1915, New York, and the first electric scooter, known as the Autoped, hit the shops. A century before dockless scooters scattered our streets, this was a time when there were scarcely any safety regulations for motorised vehicles on the road. Traffic lights were still 11 years away from being introduced.
Today, as lockdowns lift and people avoid public transport, e-scooters are becoming seriously popular. Gliding past you with a faint electric hum, whilst still relative newcomers to the streets, their story has rapidly evolved.
E-scooters have also started to shake off that tech-gadget novelty and be treated as a more serious transport mode, and one with added benefits in an era of social distancing. But, as some cities are rolling out ambitious electric scooter sharing schemes, others have banned them due to safety concerns.
Auto Futures has been talking to Fred Jones, VP & Regional General Manager for Northern Europe at TIER, Europe’s leading provider of micro-mobility, and a major driving force behind safety initiatives in Europe.
Launched in 2018 in Berlin, TIER now operates in 85+ cities in ten countries and is the first micro-mobility company to be fully climate-neutral. Its e-scooters are renowned for their safety-first design, with bigger front wheels, wider foot plates and a double-kickstand.
But TIER’s innovations in safety standards haven’t stopped there.
Working together towards a safer city
Since the UK’s Department for Transport’s move to fast-track e-scooter trials across the country in the wake of Covid-19, TIER has introduced a series of initiatives to improve safety standards and protection for riders and other road users.
By partnering with national charities, several tech-focused apps, and AA’s DriveTech, the UK’s leading provider of driver training, assessment and driver awareness schemes, TIER is utilising data to educate people around e-scooter safety and responsible use.
Last year it launched its first-ever e-scooter theory test and created the TIER Ride Safe School, a bespoke e-learning platform, in partnership with AA’s DriveTech.
“Our riders are incentivised to sign up to the online school where they will be educated with skills including how to operate and park our scooters, while also being taught how to safely share designated routes with other vehicles, pedestrians and vulnerable road users. At the end of this, TIER users will be asked to take a theory test to put what they had learnt to the test,” explains Jones.
The partnership with DriveTech adds to TIER’s credentials as one of the most responsible operator in the market.
Edmund King, President of the AA, had this to say: “I am really pleased that our road training business, DriveTech, is working in conjunction with TIER. Road safety is key and their novel e-scooter safety features – such as an integrated foldable helmet, larger front wheel and direction indicators all help ensure a safer riding experience. The AA and DriveTech see great synergies with our own road safety ethos.”
Inclusivity and the importance of data sharing
TIER also recently committed to adding a sound to its escooters to alert the blind and partially-sighted of their approach.
“We regularly engage with the visually-impaired community and have partnered with the national charity, Thomas Pocklington Trust, and the app Lazarillo to make our e-scooter operations far more safer for vulnerable road users,” says Jones.
The Lazarillo app works by providing users with real-time audio messages about the streets they are walking, while also helping them navigate through buildings such as shops or restaurants.
“This will see them share aggregated data with TIER on routes most used by visually impaired people, designed to inform our decision making with regards to e-scooter distribution, the creation of parking bays and the establishment of no-go and slow-zones for users,” explains Jones.
As part of the roll-out, Lazarillo and TIER are holding training sessions with visually impaired support organisations such as The Wilberforce Trust and MySight York to introduce new users to the app and provide information on e-scooters.
“The partnership with Lazarillo will not only give its blind and partially sighted users the information they need to stay safe, but hopefully it will also give them the peace of mind that an e-scooter operator is firmly on their side and ready to design its operations in whatever way best protects vulnerable pedestrians.”
Always welcoming feedback or suggestions, TIER is working with other providers to test smart safety solutions which can make a real difference to everyday lives.
“Safety is at the heart of everything we do at TIER and we are constantly working on new features, and looking for industry-leading partners, which can offer more protection for our riders,” Jones adds.
TIER and Busby
TIER has announced a partnership with UK micro-mobility safety app Busby to create a rapid response system for riders involved in incidents on the road.
Busby works by using the sensors in a rider’s phone to monitor their movement on the scooter. Available to download on iOS and Android, Busby, after sensing an unusual movement, will begin a countdown after which it will send the users exact location to their emergency contact, unless the countdown is deactivated.
If no movement is detected, the rider’s location will also be sent to TIER’s local city team who can investigate and arrange help as quickly as needed.
The partnership will also see Busby share its anonymous data with TIER on routes that have been identified as more hazardous. This data will support TIER’s decision-making on recommended routes to riders and ensure that danger zones, such as areas with potholes, are avoided.
Busby and TIER will also share their data with local government and other authorities to help identify required road improvements and safety regulation innovations.
“With our riders consent, Busby will collect information about the location and physical movements in order for the Busby App to function properly and monitor and verify forms of eligible movement. No data will be used for commercial purposes or shared with external partners,” explains Jones.
Kirk Ryan, Busby Co-founder & Technical Director, comments: “The partnership was simple, we share the same goal – to reduce rider incidents, and, in the unfortunate event of an incident, to reduce the response times. In addition, as we also employ a technology called RoadRadar, we make TIER users more visible than ever before by raising driver awareness.”
The shift from the ownership of vehicles to shared usership in cities is likely to continue throughout this decade.
While there may be more homeworking in the future, and therefore less commuting, there’s already been a shift back towards office work. But e-scooters arguably serve a wider demand to reduce car use and ensure cities have cleaner, quieter and safer streets.
It seems clear that our roads will change significantly in the coming decade with the advent of autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles, e-scooters and e-bikes. But using e-scooters on roads without sufficient infrastructure, such as cycle lanes, remains risky, especially due to lack of regulations.
The success of e-scooters may very well rely on infrastructure changes.
“The rise of new mobility services and the shift from the ownership of vehicles to shared usership in cities is likely to continue throughout this decade and by 2030 we will have more e-scooter and e-bikes helping people to get around cities in a green way,” says Jones.
With governments around the world beginning to prioritise the shift to electric vehicles, this will likely be reflected in the types of urban transport we see in the future.
“This is a trend we’re confident in and it is why we’ve introduced the TIER Energy Network, a network of battery charging pods which we’re rolling out around cities, which will enable all of our e-vehicles to be charged, without extra investment from the city or the electricity grid – saving significant capital invested and saving vital city street space,” Jones concludes.
Keyword: Data Sharing & Micro-Mobility Companies Come Together: TIER & The Key To Safer Cities