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Scooters May Be Delayed In Philadelphia
3/4/2019 (Permalink)
Advocates, including champions on the City Council, say they will reduce car traffic, but the mayor's transportation safety office is recommending a cautious approach to allowing dockless electric scooters on Philadelphia streets.
At a city hearing on Wednesday, Chris Puchalsky, director of policy and strategic initiatives at the Mayor’s Office of Transportation, Infrastructure and Sustainability (OTIS), said scooter crash deaths, while small in number, vastly outnumber those from bike-sharing programs, according to WHYY. Four have died in scooter crashes in the U.S. in the past year, compared to two in bike shares since nine years ago, when such programs began operating.
WHYY cited data from Consumer Reports, showing about 1,500 people injured in e-scooter crashes in the US since 2017.
Other officials believe there is a need for urgency. “This is a type of transportation that we should be moving forward with … especially based on the fact that it will reduce people’s use of cars as a mode of transportation,” Councilman Derek Green said at the council hearing, HYY reported.
Automobiles have their own dangers: the number of pedestrian traffic fatalities is on the increase nationally, the Governors Highway Safety Association states in its most recent report. The report has Philadelphia among the top states for increases in pedestrian traffic deaths.
E-scooter makers Lime, Bird and Spin, all privately held companies, were present at the hearing to make their case for e-scooters' safety and transportation benefits.
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