Not necessarily. You have to factor in that cars generate danger, so if some drivers scoot instead, they're generating less danger (but of course they're also more vulnerable themselves).
Even accounting for that the fact is cars are massively more unsafe than scooters. Are you trying to say that being hit by a scooter at 20km/h is just as dangerous as being hit by a monstrous block of metal moving at 60km/h
I think you've misread jascii - they are saying riding a motorcycle is more dangerous for the operator, while driving a car is less dangerous for the operator compared to adjacent pedestrians (for instance).
I would say that you're more likely to have an accident on a scooter than a bike but it's less likely to be more serious.
Kind of like the difference between being tripped while running and someone pushing you off a bike. Your body has a better chance at protecting itself in the former case.
Part of the difference could be explainable by different demographics. Maybe motorcyclists drive more dangerously than normal even when they're in a car.
Driving a car or scooter on the road with other cars is by far the most dangerous thing most people do in their day to day life by several orders of magnitude.
The risk is lower on a scooter than on a motorcycle. We don't have to over-correct though, and treat scooters like they're _that much_ safer than a motorcycle.
The most dangerous thing we can do is let ourselves mentally relax when we're on one, as if we're not on a big sharp chunk of (relatively) fast metal and inertia.
A helmet wearing person slamming headfirst into the nape of somebody's neck at 15 or 50 miles per hour is probably going to kill them.
> [...] it's also safer. Car drivers don't understand bikes: when they see you they have all sort of weird reactions [...]
I don’t understand how people reacting unpredictably could be safer. If your choices are (1) drive a car and other drivers behave as you would expect or when they don’t at least you are in a similar vehicle with seat belts and some shock absorption, or (2) drive a motorcycle, and other drivers either don’t see you and drive into your space without warning or else freak out, and in a collision you are likely to be horribly maimed or die, I must say that (1) sounds dramatically safer to me.
Honestly, I think inner city scooters don't really factor into this debate. As you mention you pose a limited risk to others and your choice to risk your own well being is exactly that- your choice.
2000kg passenger cars travelling at 60-100km/hr are another story altogether. My guess is that there would be a tiny fraction (<1%) of all road fatalities caused by purely mechanical failure. That leaves 99% (stats pulled from my ass) caused, or largely contributed to, by human error. For a large class of these errors a computer would never cause the problem or safely navigate around it.
Saying "I want to keep driving 'cos its fun!!" isn't really good enough in that context.
If one wishes to take the perspective that licensure helps prevent injuries and death, then apply the licensure requirements to these lighter vehicles too. If one prefers the perspective that all such transport is inherently risky, and thus prioritize personal responsibility and assumption of risk, then let's get rid of the licensure requirements, which will surely help get more people out of their 4-wheelers, with knock-on improvements for the environment, traffic congestion, and parking. My problem is with the arbitrary distinction in the middle.
The interesting part of the article for me was that Bird helped change CA law which previously required wearing helmets in electric scooters.
Transportation of any kind is a fairly dangerous activity. I assume it’s more likely to be injured on a scooter than in a car, but I don’t think the hard numbers are in.
For example if you multiply the number of miles not driven by the vehicular accident rate, you would want to subtract that number of injuries off the scooter injury total, but surely it would still be positive.
Actually when you drive a car, you have a lot more responsibility. It is easier to cause serious harm to someone while driving a multi-ton vehicle, than when riding a bike.
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