Are E-Scooter Riders More Oblivious to Traffic Than Cyclists? A Real World Study Investigating the Execution of Shoulder Glances

E-scooters are a comparatively new means of transportation. At the same time, it is considered more dangerous than established means of transport such as bicycles. To find out more about the traffic behavior of e-scooter riders, we investigate the performance of shoulder glances. To do this, we first had to define when a turning over the shoulder was counted as complete shoulder glance. In a study with 21 subjects, we used mobile eye-tracking glasses to investigate whether the gaze behavior of e-scooter riders and cyclists differs. In the situations we investigated where shoulder glances are necessary to protect oneself from other road users, we found little difference between the cyclists and e-scooter drivers. On average, the test persons performed more than half of all possible shoulder glances: 57.93% for the e-scooters and 60.71% for the bicycles. In addition, the difference in the average shoulder glance duration is negligible. We also observed that car drivers seem to be more likely to stop at crosswalks for cyclists than e-scooter riders.