From our new scooter safety video: Scooter riding is joyful if we all ride safely.
We’re excited to announce the launch of phase two of our scooter safety campaign!
Education is at the heart of this video campaign. We’re reminding scooter riders about a range of tips in order to improve safety for everybody.
Riding a scooter safely can still be a fun and joyful experience. And everyone can feel more comfortable getting where they need to go.
We’ll share more about the campaign and the safety tips it features. We’ll also cover what we’re doing year-round to support safe scooter riding and why community feedback is crucial to this work.
Promoting safe scooter riding: a new video series
In phase two of our scooter safety campaign, we share three videos about the golden rules of scooter safety.
The videos are aimed at all scooter riders, including riders of permitted scooter share devices and privately-owned scooters.
To help riders make the right decisions, each video provides examples of what to do and not do when you’re riding a scooter through the streets of San Francisco.
Here's the link to our first video:
Later this summer, we'll release videos on social media that cover speeding and double riding. We'll also update this blog so you can view the whole collection.
Sidewalk riding is illegal. This rider makes the right choice by using a bikeway.
Scooter safety tips
Here are the key scooter safety tips we cover in the video series:
- Wear a helmet – always!
- Avoid double riding – it's illegal. Only one person can ride a scooter at a time.
- Use streets or designated bike lanes, not sidewalks
- Keep your speed below 15 mph
- Follow all traffic laws to avoid collisions
- Report illegal scooter riding it to 311 so we can enforce the rules
We hope these new videos and tips will help people do their part to support safety for everyone.
This new series builds on phase one of our scooter safety campaign, which began last year. It featured posters and ads on buses, transit stops and social media. You can learn more about it in our Three Golden Rules to Scooter Safety blog.
From our new scooter video series. Be safe: properly ride powered scooters.
How we’re focusing on scooter safety all year
We're dedicated to making sure scooter riding in San Francisco is as safe as possible.
In addition to running our safety campaign, we:
- Require scooter companies to use a special locking system for parked scooters so they don't block pathways
- Require scooter companies to create plans for safe riding. This includes educating riders, sending safety tips through their apps and using technology to detect when scooters are on sidewalks.
- Encourage scooter permittees to adopt an escalating penalty structure for improper riding and parking
- Partner with the Port of San Francisco to prevent scooter riding on sidewalks along the Embarcadero
- Created a Safe Micromobility Parking Incentive Policy. It rewards scooter operators who quickly address incorrectly parked devices.
- Prioritize safety in the development of our Biking and Rolling Plan. We know that scooter riders are more likely to ride safely when a bike lane is available. If approved, the plan would increase the number of bikeways in our citywide network. We are using scooter sidewalk riding data as one factor to help inform the location of new bike lanes.
A scooter rider wears a helmet and moves safely through a bikeway.
Incorporating community feedback
Community feedback has played a critical part in our scooter safety work.
We have heard valuable feedback from the Mayor's Disability Council and members of the public about safety concerns for our city’s scooter riders and pedestrians, including older pedestrians and those with disabilities.
The Mayor’s Disability Council also shared specific comments about phase one of our scooter safety campaign. We included their creative ideas in phase two.
Some people were interested in seeing real-life examples in the safety campaign, so we created the videos to clearly model safe and unsafe riding behavior. We are also happy to feature a member of the Mayor’s Disability Council in the videos.
We welcome your feedback and questions about scooter safety and our scooter programs. To reach out with ideas or concerns, you can email: scootershare@sfmta.com. To report any complaints related to scooter riding, please call 311 or visit the 311 website.
If you’d like to learn more about what we’re doing to promote a safe and useful scooter share system, visit our scooter share permit project page. You can also view data from our Shared Mobility Dashboards.
Curious to hear about safety options for our updated Biking and Rolling Plan? Join us for an open house this month or next. View upcoming meetings and events for the Biking and Rolling Plan or our open house flyer.
Let’s enjoy safe riding in San Francisco together!