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Might that be partly because they are a fledgling technology and people aren't as used to them as they are with bikes?
That could mean a number of things:- riders aren't used to them so aren't as safe as cyclists
- other road users aren't as used to them
- some of the kit isn't that reliable
- as it is relatively niche, enthusiasts are a larger percentage of users and therefore more likely to mod them to go ridiculous speeds
It doesn't necessarily mean that they are inherently dangerous or considerably more dangerous than bikes, just that they might need more time to develop as a useful alternative urban mode of transport
- riders aren't used to them so aren't as safe as cyclists
punkture-
Might that be partly because they are a fledgling technology and people aren't as used to them as they are with bikes?
Well, that's why I'm allowing for what I call 'early adoption pains'.
It doesn't necessarily mean that they are inherently dangerous or considerably more dangerous than bikes
I certainly wouldn't say 'necessarily'. This is the real world, so claiming modal necessity for any empirical assertion about it is probably not going to work. :)
As I said, it's simply based on experience (now running nearly into its third decade) with mass electric bike use in European cities. While I don't believe (yet) that scooters will gain the same kind of traction, I think the two phenomena are roughly comparable. Early indications certainly suggests that it's a good comparison.
Oliver Schick
No. Scooter crash records so far are far worse than bike crashes. As I implied in the long post above, they're very comparable to e-bike crashes, although early indications are that they're even worse than those.