According to accident researchers, the mass rental of electric scooters endangers road safety in large cities. "It cannot be that the e-scooters are purely tourist fun mobile, urgent measures must be taken here," said Siegfried Brockmann, chief accident researcher in the General Association of the German Insurance Industry (GDV), the media group Munich Merkur / tz (Thursday).

According to the report, Brockmann suggests automatically reducing the speed of scooters in pedestrian zones based on the GPS position. Reaction tests in the lender's app are also useful to determine possible alcohol consumption. So far this has only happened occasionally.

According to the expert, e-scooter riders collide with pedestrians twice as often as cyclists. At 18.5 percent, "incorrect use of the road" is the second most common cause of e-scooter accidents - the scooter riders are often on the sidewalk.

The most common cause of accidents, at 20 percent, is not being able to drive, usually due to alcohol. "This is a clear message to the regulatory authorities, especially the police: there must be stricter controls here," Brockmann demanded in the newspaper.

The researchers' own evaluation shows that rental fleets are mainly responsible for the problems. Accordingly, frequent drivers behave in a much more compliant manner than occasional users. It is becoming apparent that privately owned e-scooters make sense - not only in big cities but also in rural communities, said Brockmann. "Especially when there is no bus or train, the e-scooter can be a useful means of transport."