Bike-Sharing Company Wheels Offers Shareable Helmet to Cut Injuries
Beginning in Los Angeles, Wheels will mount helmets on the rear fenders of its bikes that can be unlocked and worn during a trip, then reattached to the bike. The helmets will have removable liners, Wheels said in a blog post.
The Wheels helmet, as well as an earlier program by rival scooter rental company Bird to give away 75,000 helmets, comes as public health experts and regulators are sounding alarms about the safety of electric bikes and scooters.
Policy makers in cities from Singapore to Paris to San Francisco have begun hitting the brakes on e-scooters, banning them from sidewalks or restricting where and when they can be used.
Wheels riders who unlock the helmet will get a 20% discount on the cost of their trip. Sensors in the bike can detect when the helmet is returned, the company said.
Wheels cited in its blog post a recent UCLA study that found head injuries sustained by riders who were not wearing helmets were the most common injuries among 249 people admitted to emergency rooms after electric scooter accidents in California.
A study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the public health department of Austin, Texas, logged 190 injuries among electric scooter riders between Sept. 5 and Nov. 30, 2018, of which 48% were head injuries.
Investors have poured money into e-scooter and electric bike-sharing companies in recent years, chasing mainly urban dwellers seeking an alternative to walking or taking a car or public transit for relatively short journeys. Boston Consulting Group earlier this year reported that a dozen electric scooter companies had raised $1.5 billion from investors.
Wheels said in October it had raised $50 million in a funding round led by DBL Partners.
- California Chiropractor Sentenced to 54 Years for $150M Workers’ Comp Scheme
- The Cars of The Future Are Arriving. How Can Auto Insurance Adapt? It’s Complicated.
- Zurich, Philadelphia, Others Ordered to Pay $345M to Cover Abuse Charges at Georgia School
- Supplemental Claims Don’t Need to Include Damage Estimates, Fed Appeals Court Says
- Millions of Recalled Hyundai and Kia Vehicles, With Dangerous Defect, Remain on Road
- 30 Years of UIM Coverage Rules Are Wrong, North Carolina Supreme Court Says
- Poll: Consumers OK with AI in P/C Insurance, but Not So Much for Claims and Underwriting
- Ship Owner in Bridge Collapse Seeks to Limit Its Liability