Browsing by Author "White, Elizabeth"

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    Changes in Travel Behavior, Attitudes, and Preferences among E-Scooter Riders and Non-Riders: A First Look at Results from Pre and Post E-Scooter System Launch Surveys at Virginia Tech
    Buehler, Ralph; Broaddus, Andrea; Swenney, Ted; Mollenhauer, Michael A.; White, Elizabeth; Zhang, Wenwen (2021-04-22)
    Shared micromobility such as electric scooters (e-scooters) has potential to enhance the sustainability of urban transport by displacing car trips, providing more mobility options, and improving access to public transit. Most published studies on e-scooter ridership focus on cities and only capture data at one point in time. This study reports results from two cross-sectional surveys deployed before (n=462) and after (n=428) the launch of a fleet of shared e-scooters on Virginia Tech’s campus in Blacksburg, VA. This allowed for a pre-post comparison of attitudes and preferences of e-scooter riders and non-users. E-scooter ridership on campus follows patterns identified in other studies, with a greater share of younger riders—in particular undergraduate students. Stated intention to ride prior to system launch was greater than actual ridership after system launch. The drop-off between pre-launch intention to ride and actual riding was strongest for older age groups, women, and university staff. As in city surveys, the main reasons for riding e-scooters on campus were travel speed and fun of riding. About 30% indicated using e-scooters to ride to parking lots or to access public transport service—indicating e-scooters’ potential as connector to other modes of transport. Compared to responses prior to system launch, perceptions about the convenience, cost, safety, parking, rider behavior, and usefulness of the e-scooter systems were more positive among non-riders after system launch—indicating that pilot projects may improve public perception of e-scooters. Building more bike lanes or separate spaces for e-scooters to ride could help move e-scooter riders off sidewalks—a desire expressed by both pedestrians and e-scooter users.
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    E-Scooter Design: Safety Measures for Next Gen Scooter
    Novotny, Adam; Mollenhauer, Michael A.; White, Elizabeth (Safe-D National UTC, 2023-05)
    Over the recent years, e-scooters have become an increasingly popular and convenient micromobility solution for short-distance trips for a wide demographic of users. Due to their accessibility, knowledge regarding proper e-scooter use and level of operating experience can vary widely. With the increase in use, there has been a rise in injuries for e-scooter riders and other road users. One possible cause is that the true performance capabilities of e-scooters vary based upon their designs; users are unaware of these differences or how to accommodate their riding behavior to retain a safe experience. This relationship between safety outcomes and e-scooter design attribute has yet to be established. Until recently, very little formal research has been conducted on the safety of this form of transportation or on the optimal design for e-scooters. Safety concerns may limit the widespread adoption of e-scooters as a legitimate transportation option. To address this concern, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI), in collaboration with Ford Motor Company and Spin, conducted a controlled participant study on the Virginia Smart Roads to evaluate and compare various e-scooter designs and study how rider specific factors contribute to performance and safety. The results from this study will be used to inform e-scooter companies and manufacturers on design recommendations for improved e-scooter safety.
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    E-Scooter Safety Assessment and Campus Deployment Planning
    White, Elizabeth; Mollenhauer, Michael A.; Robinson, Sarah; Novotny, Adam (Safe-D University Transportation Center, 2023-12)
    E-Scooters are a popular new service that provide last mile transportation, but there are reports of safety concerns for riders and impingement on other users of rights of way. Little formal research has been conducted on E-Scooter safety or the optimal approach to deployment to decrease nuisance issues. To address this, VTTI and Spin deployed a fleet of E-Scooters on the Virginia Tech campus through an exclusive, controlled research program. Through on-scooter data acquisition systems, fixed infrastructure cameras, anecdotal injury reports, and surveys, data was collected to assess safety impact as well as to understand beneficial and problematic user behaviors and patterns for subsequent countermeasure development and deployment recommendations. The resulting naturalistic dataset includes over 9,000 miles of riding data. Overall, the E-Scooter deployment on the Virginia Tech campus was safer than other reported deployments. The operational constraints that were put in place were largely effective, and with the additional results from this study, some additional constraints and expanded outreach programs may make future deployments even safer. The campus community largely considered the deployment of E-Scooters a clean alternative transportation option and viewed the service favorably.
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    An Exploration of the Decline in E-Scooter Ridership after the Introduction of Mandatory E-Scooter Parking Corrals on Virginia Tech's Campus in Blacksburg, VA
    Buehler, Ralph; Broaddus, Andrea; White, Elizabeth; Sweeney, Ted; Evans, Chris (MDPI, 2022-12-23)
    We report shared e-scooter ridership and rider perceptions on Virginia Tech’s Blacksburg campus before and after introduction of mandatory e-scooter parking corrals in January 2022. The analysis relies on a panel of 131 e-scooter riders surveyed in Fall 2021 and Spring 2022. Although parking corrals were perceived favorably prior to implementation, perceptions became more negative afterwards. Respondents said corrals were not located where needed, difficult to find, fully occupied, and took too much extra time to use. After parking corrals were introduced, ridership declined 72% overall and also fell for all socio-economic subgroups. The heaviest user groups, like undergraduate males, were most likely to quit. The first study identifying desired and actual egress times for e-scooters, we found that roughly two-thirds of riders desired egress times under 2 min and one quarter under 1 min. Prior to the introduction of parking corrals, 82% of riders reported actual egress times under 2 min, and 43% under 1 min. Those who kept riding after the introduction of e-scooter corrals reported longer actual egress times and a stronger stated desire for egress times under 2 min. Communities should be careful when imposing e-scooter parking restrictions to ensure that e-scooter egress time is sufficiently low—ideally within an easy 2 min walk of popular origins and destinations.
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    Signal Awareness Applications
    Mollenhauer, Michael A.; Viray, Reginald; Doerzaph, Zachary R.; White, Elizabeth; Song, Miao (SAFE-D: Safety Through Disruption National University Transportation Center, 2022-09)
    Intersection collisions account for 40% of all crashes on U.S. roadways. It is estimated that 165,000 accidents, which result in approximately 800 fatalities annually, are due to vehicles that pass through intersections during red signal phases. Although infrastructure-based red-light violation countermeasures have been deployed, intersections remain a top location for vehicle crashes. The Virginia Department of Transportation and its research arm, the Virginia Transportation Research Council, partnered with the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute to create the Virginia Connected Corridors (VCC), a connected vehicle test bed located in Fairfax and Blacksburg, Virginia, that enables the development and assessment of early-stage connected and automated vehicle applications. Recently, new systems have been deployed that transmit position correction messages to support lane-level accuracy, enabling development of signal awareness applications such as red-light violation warning. This project enhances the current capabilities of VCC platforms by developing new signal awareness safety and mobility features. Additionally, this project investigated the technical and human factors constraints associated with user interfaces for notifying and alerting drivers to pertinent intersection-related information to curb unsafe driving behaviors at signalized intersections.
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    What factors contribute to e-scooter crashes: A first look using a naturalistic riding approach
    White, Elizabeth; Guo, Feng; Han, Shu; Mollenhauer, Michael A.; Broaddus, Andrea; Sweeney, Ted; Robinson, Sarah; Novotny, Adam; Buehler, Ralph (Elsevier, 2023-06)
    Introduction: Shared dockless electric scooters (e-scooters) are a popular shared mobility service providing an accessible last-mile transportation option in urban and campus environments. However, city and campus stakeholders may hesitate to introduce these scooters due to safety concerns. While prior e-scooter safety studies have collected injury data from hospitals or riding data under controlled or naturalistic conditions, these datasets are limited and did not identify risk factors associated with e-scooter riding safety. To address this gap in e-scooter safety research, this study collected the largest naturalistic e-scooter dataset to date and quantified the safety risks associated with behavioral, infrastructure, and environmental factors. Method: A fleet of 200 e-scooters was deployed on Virginia Tech’s campus in Blacksburg, VA for a 6-month period. Fifty were equipped with a unique onboard data acquisition system, using sensors and video to capture e-scooter trips in their entirety. The resulting dataset consisted of 3,500 hours of data spanning over 8,500 trips. Algorithms were developed to identify safety critical events (SCEs) in the dataset and analyses were conducted to determine the prevalence of various SCE risk factors and associated odds ratios. Results: Results from this study indicate that infrastructure-related factors, behavior of e-scooter riders and other actors, and environmental factors all contributed to the SCE risk for e-scooter riders in Virginia Tech’s pedestrian-dense campus environment. Conclusions: To help mitigate unsafe rider behavior, educational outreach programs should quantify the significant risks associated with infrastructure, behavioral, and environmental risk factors and provide clear recommendations to riders. Improved infrastructure maintenance and design may also improve safety for e-scooter riders. Practical Applications: The infrastructure, behavioral, and environmental risk factors quantified in this study can be applied by e-scooter service providers, municipalities, and campus administrators to develop mitigation strategies to reduce the safety risks associated with e-scooter deployments in the future.