E-scooter Vibration Impact on Driver Comfort and Health

Background Micro-mobility provides a solution for last mile problem and e-scooter sharing systems are one of the most heavily adopted micro-mobility services. The increasing usages of e-scooters make it necessary to analyze the possible effects of the vibrations transmitted to the drivers. Purpose This research has studied for the first time the e-scooter vibrations effects on drivers comfort and health for the actual range of circulation speeds, that can exceed 25 km/h. Methods Based on experimental measured stiffness of two different e-scooter wheels and Multibody dynamic simulations, several statistical models have been obtained following the standard UNE2631. Results The results show that for a common e-scooter and a road profile with a very good-good roughness level, a velocity of 16 km/h starts to be uncomfortable and for 23 km/h could be harmful for health, for short trip durations. Derived from the statistical models, a new way of measuring the roughness has been proposed and that will be one of the future works to adjust and validate it. Conclusion E-scooter suspension systems (front suspension and wheels) must be improved under human comfort and health point of view. Furthermore, results suggest the necessity of study the vibrations effects on real e-scooters due to the maximum speed they can reach is greater than 25 km/h.

Automated summary

This study investigated the effects of e-scooter vibrations on drivers' comfort and health for the first time, revealing that speeds above certain thresholds could be harmful. A new method for measuring road roughness was proposed as a result of the study.