E‑scooter vibration impact on driver comfort and health

Abstract

[EN]Background Micro-mobility provides a solution for last mile problem and e-scooter sharing systems are one of the most heavily adopted micro-mobility services. The increasing usages of e-scooters make it necessary to analyze the possible efects of the vibrations transmitted to the drivers. Purpose This research has studied for the frst time the e-scooter vibrations efects on drivers comfort and health for the actual range of circulation speeds, that can exceed 25 km/h. Methods Based on experimental measured stifness of two diferent e-scooter wheels and Multibody dynamic simulations, several statistical models have been obtained following the standard UNE2631. Results The results show that for a common e-scooter and a road profle with a very good-good roughness level, a velocity of 16 km/h starts to be uncomfortable and for 23 km/h could be harmful for health, for short trip durations. Derived from the statistical models, a new way of measuring the roughness has been proposed and that will be one of the future works to adjust and validate it. Conclusion E-scooter suspension systems (front suspension and wheels) must be improved under human comfort and health point of view. Furthermore, results suggest the necessity of study the vibrations efects on real e-scooters due to the maximum speed they can reach is greater than 25 km/h.