Safety is a paramount concern - and barrier to more use - for people who want to travel by bike or scooter, motorized or not. Street connectivity and dedicated bike routes offer some of the strongest safety protections for micromobility users [1]. In places without protected infrastructure for active transportation, where cars compete for the road with all other vehicle types, the most vulnerable travelers are the people outside of automobiles. To avoid the dangers of the road, scooter users and cyclists sometimes resort to traveling on sidewalks, which in turn can create conflicts with pedestrians.Younger riders (under 18 years old) are most likely to injure themselves riding scooters [2], while pedestrians who are older adults and children are particularly at risk of sustaining injuries in sidewalk collisions [3]. Experience with micromobility, too, can impact rider behavior and safety. Regular cyclists, for example, are more likely to take longer detours to avoid dangerous routes than infrequent cyclists [4].

Payment structures may also affect how safely people use a shared mobility service. When users pay per minute, rather than by distance, they may choose to speed and compromise road safety [5]. A global study of bikeshare programs found that, in cities with bikeshare programs, bikeshare users were less likely than private cyclists to sustain fatal or severe injuries [6]. However, bikeshare users were less likely than private cyclists to wear helmets [7].

Infrastructure policies to improve road safety for micromobility users may involve establishing separate travel networks for automobiles and micromobility, or, when users share the roads, designing streets that slow motorized traffic and thus reduce the severity of crashes [8].