For years, many people have assumed that riding an e-scooter is riskier than cycling an e-bike.
But new research from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden suggests the opposite may be true—at least when it comes to rented vehicles in city centers.
The study, published in the Journal of Safety Research, found that riders using rented e-bikes in urban areas were eight times more likely to crash than riders on rented e-scooters when the results were adjusted for how far each group traveled.
Professor Marco Dozza, who led the study, explained that earlier research often grouped e-bikes with regular bicycles or ignored key differences such as whether the vehicles were privately owned or rented.
This made it hard to get a fair comparison.
“Previous studies have often compared apples with oranges,” Dozza said. “By looking only at rented vehicles and using GPS data to measure how much they were actually used, we could make a more accurate comparison.”
The researchers examined trips taken in seven European cities: Gävle in Sweden, Berlin and Düsseldorf in Germany, and Cambridge, Kettering, Liverpool, and Northampton in the U.K.
They collected GPS data from rental companies, which allowed them to measure exposure—that is, how much each type of vehicle was used.
The dataset included 686 crashes involving e-scooters and 35 involving e-bikes. At first glance, this might seem to suggest e-scooters are more dangerous. But the big difference is that e-scooters were used far more often than e-bikes.
When the researchers looked at crash risk per trip, per minute of travel, and per kilometer traveled, they found e-bikes consistently came out riskier.
The biggest difference was when trip distance was used: e-bike riders were 8.3 times more likely to crash than e-scooter riders.
The findings came as a surprise even to the researchers. “It’s not the result we expected,” said Dozza.
The results could have real consequences for how cities plan their transport systems. Many cities have favored e-bikes over e-scooters, assuming that all forms of cycling are safer than scootering. But if that assumption is wrong, it may be time for policymakers to reconsider.
“This study suggests that the safety of e-scooters has been underestimated,” said Dozza. “That doesn’t mean scooters are always safe—but it does mean that e-bikes may not be the safer alternative people think.”
The team stressed that the study does not provide final proof that scooters are safer. There are still uncertainties, such as the possibility that some crashes go unreported, or that e-bikes and scooters are used differently. Still, the findings offer a much clearer picture than before.
The researchers hope to see more studies that use GPS data and focus on rented vehicles in city centers, rather than mixing together very different types of use. They would also like larger datasets on e-bikes to strengthen the reliability of future comparisons.
“With better data, we can make better decisions about the future of urban transport,” Dozza said. “And that starts with making sure we compare apples with apples.”
