PORTLAND, Ore. — A long-awaited analysis of Portland's e-scooter pilot program found 176 people went to emergency rooms over scooter injuries, and another pilot program is in the works.
More than 700,000 trips were taken from July 23, 2018 through Nov. 20, 2018, spanning 801,887 total miles. The average trip lasted 1.15 miles, and there were a total of 2,043 scooters on Portland streets.
The report, which you can read in full online, found the majority of injuries (83 percent) were not incurred in collisions with cars, scooters or pedestrians.
Twenty-two of those emergency room visits occurred over crashes with cars, and 2 occurred in crashes involving trucks. Three involved a scooter user getting injured after running into a person walking on the street, and only one injury was reported as two scooter riders collided.
The report found 34 percent of locals and 48 percent of visitors took a scooter to replace driving a personal car or ordering a ride share.
Another scooter pilot program appears to be in the works: PBOT concluded the initial 4-month pilot program wasn't enough time to understand challenges to permanently adding scooters to the city.
These challenges included illegal sidewalk riding, incorrect scooter parking, riding in parks (which is prohibited), companies not complying with East Portland fleet requirements, and black Portlanders' worry over being targeted for racial profiling and harassment while riding scooters.
The new program will likely begin in the spring of 2019.