Want scooters to get off of sidewalks? Here's what we've learned about “pavement” riding from one Superpedestrian City
If you’ve ridden a Superpedestrian e-scooter this year in Nottingham and rode on the sidewalk (or “pavement” as they’re called in the UK), you may have received a message reminding you to ride on the road. That’s because since November of 2022, we’ve been collecting data from sensors onboard the vehicles that know whether you’re riding on the road or on sidewalks. Then, we’re contacting sidewalk riders to let them know that they should be riding in the street.
Pavement riding is not allowed in the UK e-scooter trials, and Superpedestrian and Nottingham City Council have been working together to curb the behavior. However, until now, neither party really knew how pervasive the problem was, or whether educational efforts could help curb the issue.
We recently presented a report to the Council on what we’ve learned so far about pavement riding, which also included the results of a survey we conducted of riders who had ridden on the pavement during the study period. (To protect rider privacy, riding and survey data for the report was anonymized and aggregated.)
“We had our hunches about how often people ride on pavements, and we had some anecdotal data about why, but we didn’t really know the scope of the issue,” said Jean Andrews, Policy Director at Superpedestrian. “Now with clear data about how often people ride on pavements coupled with survey data, we have a better understanding and can turn those insights into action.”
What we learned about sidewalk riding
As we analyzed the data from thousands of Nottingham trips and surveyed riders, here’s what stood out:
Most trips stay in the street
The majority (85%) of e-scooter trips take place fully on the road
experience matters
Experienced riders are far less likely to ride on the sidewalk than new riders. A given rider is 14% less likely to ride on the sidewalk each trip they take.
Targeted education seems to have a [small] effect
Notifications sent to sidewalk riders educating them about riding rules in Nottingham effectively decreased pavement riding. Following the activation of the notifications, sidewalk riding decreased almost 5% per week.
Poor infrastructure leads to sidewalk riding
Surveyed pavement riders identified infrastructure, including lack of cycle lanes and poor road conditions, and safety concerns as the top reasons for pavement riding
riders use sidewalks to avoid traffic and careless drivers
In an open-ended question, 23% of surveyed pavement riders referred to traffic and careless drivers as being a major factor for choosing to ride on pavements
What’s next
Moving forward, Superpedestrian is using the pavement riding data to tailor our educational efforts. We’ll continue to send notifications to riders who take sidewalk rides, and also expand our educational efforts to target inexperienced riders. This will include educating new riders more often about riding rules, and also offering more safe riding tips.
We also hope that the data we’re collecting can help guide Nottingham City Council’s efforts to make Nottingham streets safer for all users.
“The data that we collect from these scooters can give us great insights into what areas of town likely need new cycling infrastructure the most,” explains Andrews of Superpedestrian. “We can let the Council know where we see pavement riding most often, which often reveals areas where people don’t feel safe riding on the road. This can help the Council understand where infrastructure interventions can make an impact on safety and on pavement riding.”
Nottingham City Council’s Portfolio Holder for Highways, Transport and Planning, Councillor Angela Kandola, said: “Nottingham City Council, with our partners at Superpedestrian, are taking the issue of pavement riding of scooters seriously. We’ve been working together to look at solutions to this issue, and I’m happy to see the data being used to understand the issue and take action on it with the minority of users who persistently ride on the pavement.”