7 Safety Tips You Should Know Before Riding an Electric Scooter

August 23, 2021

If you’ve had your eyes on an electric scooter for a while, you’re probably all too excited to take her out on the road and explore.

7 Safety Tips You Should Know Before Riding an Electric Scooter

You absolutely should do this, but before you do, it’s a good idea to keep in mind electric scooter safety tips. The following will break down a few crucial aspects of using your electric scooter safely and securely.

Learn About the Rules

An electric scooter is, by law, a vehicle. This means there are rules of the road that you need to be following if you don’t want to get a ticket or fine.

Take the time to learn about where your vehicle fits in the legal system and the rules of the road in your state or province, and what maintenance requirements you need to upkeep for your scooter to be road-ready.

Some types of electric scooters have lights that must be in working condition for signaling purposes, where others don’t. Do your research and ensure that you’re meeting all legal requirements.

Moreover, you need to look up the specific city or county bylaws in your area to figure out where you’re allowed to drive your electric scooter. It might not be legal to drive electric scooters everywhere and you don’t want to be stuck with a massive fine.

Not all cities are set up to support scooter usage, so some have placed restrictions on when and where you can drive them.

Safety Equipment

Just like wearing a seatbelt in a car or a helmet on a motorbike, there are things that you might want to have on your person for safety on an electric scooter.

There are several useful accessories you might want to secure before driving, including a helmet, eye protection, a bell, reflective clothing if you’re driving at night, and a front light and tail light, to name a few.

It can also get quite breezy while you’re driving around, so you might want a jacket or sweater and maybe some gloves to protect your knuckles (as your knuckles will be getting the full force of the wind while you drive). a girl on a scooter

Security Equipment

In all likelihood, you’re going to be driving your electric scooter to specific locations where you’re then going to get off your scooter and go about town, run into a shop, or hang out with friends.

You’re probably going to want some kind of locking mechanism that will allow you to keep your scooter safe when you’ve walked away for a time.

Even with a proper security mechanism, it’s always wise to use some common sense and not leave your scooter in areas where theft could go unnoticed relatively easily.

This means don’t hide it behind big shrubs, leave it in dark areas, or park it in low-traffic alleys.

Understand Your Route

This point should go without saying, but in today’s digital world, it often doesn’t. If you’re going to be driving an electric scooter somewhere, figure out which route you want to take before you get on the scooter.

You’re not going to be able to check the GPS on your phone unless you pull over somewhere safe and stop driving, and this will quickly become a hassle.

Just like when you’re riding a bike or driving a car, you shouldn’t be looking at your phone as the vehicle is moving.

Understand Your Comfort Level

As when driving any vehicle, you need to understand where your skill level lies and be honest about which speeds, turns, and maneuvers feel unsafe to you.

Never ignore those gut feelings that tell you something isn’t quite secure. It can take a bit of time to get confident driving an electric scooter, and that’s okay. You don’t want to risk your health, someone else’s health, or your electric scooter’s wellbeing.

Practise

If you haven’t driven an electric scooter before, you might want to take the vehicle somewhere safe to practice driving it for a bit before you take it out on the road.

This might be a quiet parking lot or a big driveway. Make sure you have a handle on driving before you share the road with cars and pedestrians.

Learn About Signalling

Hand signals are required in some places when driving an electric scooter, and in other places, even though they’re not legally required, they’re still polite and helpful for people you’re sharing the road with.

You might want to practice signaling as well before going out on the road, as often, this will require you to drive one-handed.

Conclusion

The above tips should help you increase your safety while driving an electric scooter. It is important that if there is something wrong with your scooter—it isn’t handling as smoothly, as usual, is making odd noises, or is odd in another way—that you don’t drive it.

Take it into a professional and have it looked at. Just like with any other vehicle, it is dangerous to drive an electric scooter if it isn’t working properly.

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