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Feelings of Insecurity, Obstacles and Conflicts: Issues Blind People Have with e-scooters in Public Space and Potential Improvements

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Smart Energy for Smart Transport (CSUM 2022)

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Abstract

In recent years, light electric standing scooters have become a popular mode of transport in urban areas all around the world. Even though this type of vehicle has been first introduced only a few years ago, e-scooters are of major interest in transport research and there is a rapidly growing body of research on various aspects of e-scooters. In this contribution, we focus on the voice of a marginal group in transportation. We investigate the experiences and opinions blind and visually impaired people have towards e-scooters. For doing so, we conducted a survey on experiences and opinions on e-scooters consisting of closed and open questions. The survey was disseminated via associations and key partners. A total of 276 blind or visually impaired persons participated in spring 2021 in Germany. The results show that blind and visually impaired probands feel highly disturbed by e-scooters in their everyday mobility. Almost all participants have already experienced conflicting situations with e-scooters as pedestrians. Thereby, unproperly parked e-scooters cause by far more problems than those driving. Half of the respondents have already tripped or fallen because of a parked e-scooter. Therefore, the greatest potential for improving the situation for this group and pedestrians in general, lies in fixed parking areas. The results enable us to understand the perspective of a group often less considered in transport research. We draw recommendations based on the assessment of this specific group in order to develop the transport system towards an integrative design.

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Acknowledgment

The project was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure using resources from the National Cycling Plan 2020 (NRVP). We would like to thank Clara Dehlinger for data curation and Julia Jarass for comments on the manuscript. Thanks also to the project partners Martina Hertel, Victoria Langer and Uta Bauer (Difu–German Institute of Urban Affairs) and Claudia Leschik (DLR Institute of Transportation Systems).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. German Aerospace Center (DLR)—Institute of Transport Research, Berlin, Germany

    Michael Hardinghaus & Rebekka Oostendorp

Authors
  1. Michael Hardinghaus
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  2. Rebekka Oostendorp
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Hardinghaus .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece

    Eftihia G. Nathanail

  2. Department of Planning and Regional Development, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece

    Nikolaos Gavanas

  3. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece

    Giannis Adamos

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Hardinghaus, M., Oostendorp, R. (2023). Feelings of Insecurity, Obstacles and Conflicts: Issues Blind People Have with e-scooters in Public Space and Potential Improvements. In: Nathanail, E.G., Gavanas, N., Adamos, G. (eds) Smart Energy for Smart Transport. CSUM 2022. Lecture Notes in Intelligent Transportation and Infrastructure. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23721-8_81

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23721-8_81

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-23720-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-23721-8

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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