The Current - E-scooters might be fun, but are they safe?

Episode Date: August 8, 2025

They're cheap, ecofriendly, and fun. E-scooters are growing in popularity across Canada, but they are also safety concerns. A new report shows injuries caused when riding two-wheeled vehicles are higher than ever before. We talk about what needs to be done to regulate e-scooters better and keep riders safe. 

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This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. They're too fast, not aware of what's being around them, not aware of their surroundings as much as the bike. Electric scooters may be a greener and cheaper way to get around, but not everyone is a fan of the massive spike in their popularity, and they're growing concerns about their safety. It's rare that I see anyone wearing a helmet.

I think with the kids I've seen, I haven't seen any of them wearing helmets, and it's definitely a concern. New data shows there's been a sharp rise in e-scooter injuries. Chet Walker's son Austin was riding a rented e-scooter when he was hit and killed by a drunk driver. Please came in and kind of tried to explain it to us. Asked me to sit down. I said, you kidding? Can't sit down.

Like, what's going on? This ain't right. This ain't true. They told us that our son was hit by a drunk driver, riding an e-scooter, rented a scooter. And he left him there to die. Dr. Brian Rowe is a professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at University of Alberta. He's also the director of an emergency medicine research group that studies e-scooter injuries. Dr. Rowe, good morning.

Good morning, Sean. What goes through your mind when you hear Chet Walker's story? Oh, that's so tragic. Yeah, I mean, fortunately deaths on e- scooters are relatively rare. But serious injuries are increasingly frequent, and many of these people are left with longstanding permanent disabilities because head injuries are a major problem with e-scooters. So, yeah, it's tragic. The loss of a young person's life is just terrible.

What does a typical e-scooter injury look like? Well, we are mostly looking at adult e-scooter injuries because it's illegal to operate an e-scooter under the age of, you know, driver's age. And most of our injuries were in people about 28 years of age, that we saw about 759 over three years. And this data that we've published is a little bit old, and we've looked at more recent data, which shows that the numbers are increasing. And then when we see these people, they have multiple injuries.

So it's not just that they fall and injure their wrist, they hit their head. head. They have an abrasion, a laceration. So about two out of three of these are multiple injuries. About one in six have a head injury and about one in 20 need admission to hospital. So these are these are not insignificant events. 20% of them come by ambulance to the hospital. So they consume a lot of resources, pre-hospital resources, emergency resources, inpatient and surgical resources. So this is not an inconsequential activity for people to undertake. What sort of conversations do you have with the patients you treat about what happened

and how they were injured? I asked them about the circumstances of their travel. So, for example, you know, what time of the day was it? How did the crash occur? Was it, you know, somebody stepped in front of you and you had to swerve? And often it's some they were inexperienced. They weren't aware of the speed. One woman just jumped off because she couldn't figure out how to put on the break.

So, again, inexperience is common because it's not something that's been around for a long time. We asked about alcohol and other impairing substances like cannabis. And we're frequently encountering people late in the evenings, early mornings, who have been drinking, maybe using other substances, and using this as an alternative to a taxi home after a night out of celebration. And I think that's really another message that this is not a safe strategy for people who have been consuming alcohol and drugs. What makes an e-scooter more risky for injury than, say, a bike?

Well, I think inexperienced, most people learned how to ride a bike when they were very young, and they have more experience with it. it's a more stable device. E-scooters go quickly. People aren't used to riding them. They often don't wear a helmet. And, you know, when they fall, their head is at risk for injury. You were talking a little bit about how many injuries are, what kind of injuries, who's

coming to the hospital by Edglet. I'm wondering what sort of trends you're seeing in who is getting injured using e- scooters. Our hospital is not a pediatric hospital, so we don't, don't, don't, comment really on pediatrics, but the hospital sick children's and researchers there have identified that increasing numbers of children are involved in e-scooter crashes and injuries. And I think, you know, the basic approach would be to avoid using e- scooters in children. That would be a simple thing. But it's pretty standard that we're seeing people between 20 and 35 who have been using alcohol

at night who suffer an injury while e-scootering. That's the trend that we've seen. You're not supposed to be more than one person on an e-scooter, but it does happen. Is the passenger getting hurt? Absolutely. We did observational studies. We still conducted in the summer, but last summer we found about 5% of the e-scooter traffic included passengers.

And I think it's important to recognize that those passengers are often women or children. If you're in front of the driver, you could be used as an airbag to protect the driver. And that's the same thing that's happening with children. Young children, three years old, are holding onto the front of an e-scooter and their parents are driving. East scooters are everywhere. They've been around for a few years. Why the sudden spike in injuries? Early on, it was difficult to identify the cases. Now there's a specific code for it. So we're finding more of the cases. They're just so much more popular. There used to be, you know, a few hundred e-scooters in Edmonton. Now there's, I mean, there are at least a

thousand of them and they're all over the place. They're on the sidewalks. They're in the river valley. They're in the ditches. They're absolutely everywhere because they're not, there's no designated place to get on and get off, like the rental bikes in most cities. I'm Nala Ayyed, host of Ideas, and I'm beyond proud to let you know that ideas will soon be turning 60 years old. Not the podcast, of course, but Ideas, the program and our deep roots at CBC Radio. So to celebrate a little early, we're spotlighting some of the most brilliant thinkers of our time by revisiting your favorite Massey speakers. So join me this summer on Ideas and help celebrate our 60. birthday.

Dr. Roe stay with us for a moment. We're going to bring in another guest who is also researching e-scooter injuries and fatalities. Pam Fuzelli is the president of Parachute Canada and Injury Prevention Organization. Pam, hello. Hi, Sean. How does what you've heard from Dr. Roe Square with the research you're doing?

Yeah, I mean, the research that we're seeing and that Dr. Roe has done is very consistent. It is, as he mentioned, you know, still fairly early in its infancy, because these are a relatively new transport tool that we are now seeing huge increases in use. What are you seeing in terms of the scale of injuries based on the research? Yeah, very similar. You know, the most, you know, things that we're most concerned about are the head injuries

because those are very life-threatening, but also life-altering, not just concussions, but other, you know, physical skull and brain injuries that will stay with someone for their whole life. And, you know, the chance of coming off of one of these e- scooters, whether you're colliding with somebody else or not, whether you're just hitting a pothole or a curb, or you're just not very coordinated that day, because these tools are so unstable and they require such a, an amount of balance and coordination, you know, it is relatively risky to use one of these without wearing a helmet. Let's talk about rules a little bit.

Dr. Rowe alluded to it, you know, what's allowed, what's not allowed. What exactly is the legislation for East Scooters in Canada? That's a challenging question. It's very patchwork. It's very fragmented across the country. There are a number of provinces like Ontario that have provincial legislation, but each municipality or jurisdiction has their own ability to then adopt that or make them illegal. For example, Toronto has not made them legal for use in the city, but they are a legal product that can be bought. And so you can imagine they are on the roads of Toronto.

Ottawa has taken a different approach. They have actually put legislation into place to, you know, try to control the use and therefore give, you know, the police enforcement opportunities to try to mitigate these injuries that we're seeing. Eli, let's talk about enforcement. Now, what do you notice? What are your observations in terms of enforcement? It's not very high. And I think it's very similar to what we see with even bike helmet enforcement. And so, you know, there's a number of reasons why that happens, you know, priorities, you know, what the number of police that are out there, the sense of how important this is compared to other things that they are doing.

And there's some different approaches, if you will. So you can ticket people who are not wearing their helmets. We've also done some campaigns across the country with police forces where they do positive ticketing. So they reward people who are wearing their helmets. It's not just personal e-scooters. Many cities now have ride-chair scooters. We heard from Chet Walker earlier, Hissan Austin, was riding one of these when he was killed. What impact are these programs having on safety?

Yeah, they, again, are sporadowing. like they're fragmented across the country, not every jurisdiction has them. They are not supposed to be operated by people under 16. They require a credit card to activate that somewhat can mitigate that. Some of them provide helmets with their devices. Some of them require you to take, now, there's no research in terms of how effective this is, but some of them require you to answer a couple of key questions before you get on to the rental e-scooters that cover some safety aspects. So again, these have been introduced in various jurisdictions and, you know, the research or the, you know, evidence around what impact they have had is still

to be done. Dr. Rowe talked a little bit about this. He mostly deals in. and treats adults. But we did get into younger people somewhat. What are you noticing in terms of age? Yeah, I think the main message to parents are for kids is these are not toys, even though they may look like it and they look like they're a lot of fun. There are other options that parents can take, you know, there's the non-motorized scooters where the human powered, if you will, so kids are, you know, moving the scooter with their feet. It's a great physical activity. But also, going back to what Dr. Rose said about, you know, practice with bikes that you usually start at a young age on a bike and you learn to ride it. And then when you get on an e-bike,

you've got that experience. Similar thing, I think, applies here where, you know, kids are much more safe on a non-motorized scooter. They still have to control the scooter and learn to balance and things like that. But really, kids under 16 shouldn't operate these vehicles. basically. They're motorized. They can go up to 32 kilometers an hour, and if you're clever, you can probably tweak it so that you can get higher. So they aren't toys. They shouldn't be used by kids. I know in Quebec, it's 14 years old to be able to use an e-scooter, and there are a bunch of rules that come with it, including wearing a helmet. Dr. Roeb, what would you like to see done to make e-scooter's safer to use? Well, Sean, there are some strategies. For example,

are speed restrictions in some communities. Some jurisdictions have restricted the time that you can access an e-scooter. So, for example, turning them off at night. We had an interesting experiment last summer where you had to answer three skill testing questions after about 10 o'clock at night on the weekends. And that reduced use by 25 percent because a lot of people who are intoxicated, can't answer those questions. And then there are forbidden zones within some communities. So, for example, in Edmonton on White Avenue, one of the popular clubbing areas, you can't ride

the vehicles on that road. But I think overall, all of these interventions need to be evaluated for effectiveness. In terms of wearing a helmet, and we're talking about some of the rental ones, So the rental e-scooters, people just pick them up and they go, and they don't necessarily have a helmet with them. What, what, how do you get around that? Well, we, we, in our observation study, there are two rental e-scooter companies in Emmetton that do not provide a helmet on their e-scooter. So when we look at those e-scooter riders, only one or two percent have a helmet.

When we look at the, the one rental company called Neuron that is, providing a helmet, only one in ten of the riders are using that helmet. People, you know, describe the ick factor. I don't want to put somebody else's hat on. What if they had lice and, you know, what if they didn't do their hair properly? I don't know. And then it's the personal e-scooters, which makes sense. If you own an e-scooter and you're riding from home, often you've had a bike with a helmet.

You're used to that. and about a third of those riders use a helmet. So providing the helmet is not entirely the solution. If only one in ten use that helmet, it's often ill-fitting. You know, they're not wearing it properly. It's not the right size. It would probably be somewhat effective, but not completely. Pam, there's been battles for years in many municipalities

over creating proper bike lanes, separated lanes, or making intersections safer for pedestrians, all in an attempt to reduce injuries and deaths of people, not in vehicles using roads. How should infrastructure be adjusting to deal with the influx of e-scooters? Yeah, it's a really good point. I mean, there's the human behavior and human choice, as Dr. Rote just described.

But we humans are fallible. And so one of the very effective ways to prevent injuries in various ways, but particularly on our roads, is to look at infrastructure design changes. And so, as you say, the separated bike lanes, we know that there is very strong evidence of effectiveness of those in mitigating collisions between vehicles and bike lane users. And so then we have to think about the differential in speed in those bike lanes

if we are advocating for e-scooters to be used in bike lanes. lanes. Does that increase the risk between, you know, e- scooters and bikes, cyclists who are not also e-bikes, you know, using those lanes? But on the surface, I would say that that's, you know, safer. It's not safe to use e- scooters on sidewalks. There are, you know, pedestrians. I mean, the speed differential is very high there. But you've also got people with carriages, with carts, with people with, you know, walkers and wheelchairs and things like that. Finding solutions in the infrastructure that will that will make it safer for all road users. That's our goal. If the changes you're both calling for aren't enacted, what's its stake here, Penn?

Well, I think it's people's lives. Simply, thankfully, as Dr. Rowe said, you know, the deaths are not high, but we're also seeing use go up. And so we need to watch those data very carefully to see if there is an increase. Dr. Roe? Yeah, I agree with Pam, that without any changes to the current status quo, I think we're going to see more and more of these injuries. There's evidence of increasing severity and frequency of injuries in our own community. I'm sure that's the same in other communities where these devices are being used.

So I think there are rules that people should follow, just like everything else that we do. And I think if we don't do something, we're going to be sorry later on, and many people are going to suffer. This is an interesting conversation and one that's likely to continue. Thanks to both of you. Thanks for having us. Dr. Brian Rowe is an emergency care physician. He's also a professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at University of Alberta, and the director of an emergency medicine research group that studies e-s-scooter injury.

Pan Fuselli is the president of Parachute Canada in Injury Prevention Organization. You've been listening to the current podcast. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you soon. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.