A scientist has rejected calls for private e-scooter riders to wear full-face helmets, despite the RACQ’s call to mandate them to reduce injuries to riders.
The motoring body argues that 65 per cent of riders turning up at Queensland’s emergency departments said they were wearing a helmet.
But scientist Arkadiy Matsekh, who appeared at Queensland’s e-mobility inquiry as an industry witness, said introducing them would put a lot of people off riding e-scooters.
“The biggest danger to people on bicycles are not themselves – this is the heavy vehicles,” he said.
“Those who want to use them (full-face helmets), they are welcome.
“Nobody would want to use a full-face helmet to just try to get some groceries.”
Matsekh, who has cycled about 140,000 on Australian roads, said Europe did not have mandatory helmet laws.
“A piece of styrofoam on your head will not protect you from being hit (by a car),” he said.
“A major source of threat to vulnerable road users are, of course, vehicles, and we need to basically seek this cultural shift.”