Feelings of Insecurity, Obstacles and Conflicts: Issues Blind People Have with e-scooters in Public Space and Potential Improvements

Abstract

In recent years, light electric standing scooters have become a popular mode of transport in urban areas all around the world. Even though this type of vehicle has been first introduced only a few years ago, e-scooters are of major interest in transport research and there is a rapidly growing body of research on various aspects of e-scooters. In this contribution, we focus on the voice of a marginal group in transportation. We investigate the experiences and opinions blind and visually impaired people have towards e-scooters. For doing so, we conducted a survey on experiences and opinions on e-scooters consisting of closed and open questions. The survey was disseminated via associations and key partners. A total of 276 blind or visually impaired persons participated in spring 2021 in Germany. The results show that blind and visually impaired probands feel highly disturbed by e-scooters in their everyday mobility. Almost all participants have already experienced conflicting situations with e-scooters as pedestrians. Thereby, unproperly parked e-scooters cause by far more problems than those driving. Half of the respondents have already tripped or fallen because of a parked e-scooter. Therefore, the greatest potential for improving the situation for this group and pedestrians in general, lies in fixed parking areas. The results enable us to understand the perspective of a group often less considered in transport research. We draw recommendations based on the assessment of this specific group in order to develop the transport system towards an integrative design.