Eight out of ten people in the UK think more needs to be done to encourage helmet use and over half believe helmets should be mandatory for e-scooter riders, according to a new poll.
The survey has been commissioned by operator, Neuron Mobility, to coincide with its first annual helmet safety awareness week, which started on 01 October. The initiative aims to educate riders on the benefits of helmets and encourage the use when riding e-scooters.
Researchers looked into the perceptions of helmet safety and awareness of the rules around helmet use, it included over 2,000 respondents from across the UK. The survey found that the vast majority of people (83%) think it’s important that e-scooter riders use a helmet to protect themselves and seven out of ten people claim that they would regularly choose to wear one if provided by an e-scooter company.
Additionally, there was a strong demand for more to be done to promote helmet use. 59% believe e-scooter helmets should be made mandatory in the UK, 68% believe e-scooter operators should provide riders with helmets and 23% think more incentives are required in order to promote safe riding and helmet use.
Views on helmet wearing were found to vary from region to region, with people in the North East being the most likely to say they would wear a helmet at 74%, compared to 64% of people in London and just 58% of people in the North West.
Neuron added safety is its number one priority as international research shows that 28% of e-scooter injuries occur to the head or neck. The micromobility firm stressed that greater education and incentives are needed to increase helmet use, and this should be the responsibility of every operator.
Zachary Wang, CEO of Neuron Mobility, said: “Safety is at the heart of everything we do at Neuron and helmets are the single most important way for riders to protect themselves. For this reason all of our e-scooters in every city we operate have an integrated helmet. Although they are not mandatory in the UK they are strongly encouraged.”
To encourage helmet wearing, Neuron has allocated £100,000 to incentivise helmet use and safe riding as part of the awareness week. Neuron will be tripling the incentive offered to users for putting on a helmet before their ride by taking an in-app ‘Helmet Selfie’.
Neuron will also be holding a series of ScootSafe events across the country. Its safety ambassadors will be out during helmet safety awareness week, and will be able to provide safety briefings for those who need reminding of the safe riding rules. Neuron’s safety course has been co-created with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA). It takes less than ten minutes to complete and will equip participants with the knowledge and confidence to ride Neuron’s e-scooters safely.
