Information About The Crash
The July 17, 2023 Administrator’s Report included the details of a pedestrian crash at the intersection of E. University and S. University.
Excerpt from July City Administrator’s Report
Even though it was reported as a pedestrian crash, the UD-10 report for this incident describes how the rider of an electric scooter, traveling westbound on S. University, crossed into the eastbound lane and crashed into an oncoming vehicle.
Excerpt from UD-10 report.
A visit to the site on December 1, 2023 (6 months after the incident) shows pavement in relatively good condition; the city’s pavement condition dashboard reports this stretch of street as “9-Excellent”. The only noteworthy defect is a large, filled pothole in the intersection of S. University and E. University, approximately 500 feet from where the crash occurred. Within the intersection, there are some manhole covers that are not perfectly flush with the paved surface, but very close to it. There isn’t much near the crash site that would obviously cause a scooter to go out of control.
University looking west. Note the pothole next to the fire hydrant, near the curb.
University, facing west.
The UD-10 attributes the loss of control of the scooter to the rider’s intoxication. That may indeed be a major contributing cause of this crash. Nonetheless, it’s worth taking a closer look at this incident, and scooter usage in general, for two reasons.
First, Ann Arbor residents deserve a transportation system (including any micromobility options) that doesn’t result in serious head injuries for the users, even the users who have made bad decisions.
Second, in 2023, there have been two serious scooter crashes in Ann Arbor, both resulting in head injuries, one of which was fatal. A FOIA request of all serious crashes in Ann Arbor in 2022, with all modes of transportation, did not return any serious scooter crashes. Shared mobility options like scooters have a lot to offer: they can take the place of short car trips, and they can enable commuters to choose transit for long trips by providing a convenient last-mile option. These are compelling reasons to make sure micromobility options are safe as systems scale up. The increase we observed in 2023 needs to be curtailed.
Don’t operate a scooter while intoxicated
This one seems obvious but worth mentioning. Don’t use a scooter while impaired. This crash resulted in a serious head injury and an OWI for the scooter rider. It very easily could have resulted in death. Please rely on more conventional modes of after-party transportation, like a designated driver, rideshare services, the bus, or walking.
There may be ways for SPIN to improve rider safety
They are, after all, profiting from scooter rides. It’s reasonable to expect them to put forth some effort to keep their users safe.
One possible improvement might be an effort to increase the number of users who use helmets. Considering that SPIN and its three main competitors all agree that helmet use should be encouraged, and considering that helmet use among scooter riders is much lower than cyclists, this might be an opportunity to realize some real gains.
SPIN could do more to encourage helmet use. All of the riders shown in pictures and videos on their website are wearing helmets, but every hyperlink on SPIN’s website that related to helmets, including the one on the footer of every single page of the site, was broken. SPIN’s competitors aren’t doing great either. Bird advertises the option to post a picture of yourself on social media with the tag #BirdHelmetSelfie, thereby earning the rider discounts on future rides. A search on X for this hashtag turned up 20 tweets, the newest of which was from July, 2022. Instagram had 6 posts. Lime and Superpedestrian both offer discounts on Bern helmets that reduce the cost of one of Bern’s less expensive helmets from $70 to about $60. (6/6/2025 Update: the helmet discount programs appear to be discontinued.)
Another possible improvement is a sobriety check to deter riders who are too intoxicated to ride safely. Bird offers the Safe Start checkpoint at the beginning of all late night rides. This might also be the right way to remind riders that they can get an OWI on an escooter, as the rider in the S. University crash did.
CIAA has reached out to SPIN, asking them about what they might do to improve the safety of scooter riders. This post will be updated with any response.
The footer on all of the pages of the Spin website includes a link for “Helmets” but on each of them, the link address points back to the referring page. Source: https://www.spin.app/safety.
Screenshot taken from a Spin safety video. Source: https://www.spin.app/safety