Cars

Scooter safety

Updated: 12 Oct 2009

Introduction

Keep safe on your motor scooter with our tips for riding, maintenance and buying the right safety gear.

Riding a scooter is estimated to be 16 times riskier than driving a car. Mopeds (scooters 50cc and under) make up 20 percent of motorcycle crashes; larger scooters and motorcycles up to 250cc contribute another 20 percent.

With scooter numbers booming and accidents on the rise, we tell you how to ride without risking life and limb.

Reducing your risk

Staggeringly, 49 percent of motorcycle crashes aren’t the fault of the rider. Intersections are particularly dangerous: they’re by far the most common crash site for scooters and motorcycles of 125cc or less, and chances are the driver will say something like, “I just didn’t see you!” as you’re packed into the ambulance.

The #1 rule is “be seen”:

Buying a scooter? Fire-engine red, lightning blue and shamrock green may be safer colour schemes than black, silver or white.
Keep your headlights on whenever you’re riding – even during the day. This is compulsory from 1 November 2009.
Wearing a brightly coloured helmet and clothes is safest. But even wearing a white or light-coloured helmet (rather than a black one) reduces the risk of an accident by 24 percent.
Wearing reflective or fluorescent clothing reduces your accident risk by 37 percent.

What you wear, how you ride, and the condition of your scooter are the three main things under your control that can keep you safe.

Dress to stay alive

Spending money on safety gear may seem painful. But it’s nothing like the lengthy pain you’ll have to put up with if you crash without the right protection. If you wouldn’t jump off your scooter at 50km/h wearing jandals and a T-shirt, don’t ride in those clothes unless you’ve always wanted a skin-graft.

Chris Hyland from Auckland motorcycle accessory store Motomail says that sales staff in any motorcycle and scooter store should be able to work out what you need: “A very important part of getting the right scooter gear is selecting a helmet, gloves, a jacket, and pants that fit properly.”

Helmet: Open-face helmets look more stylish but full-face models are much safer. They’ll guard your chin and nose against scraping the ground in an accident – as well as protect you from bees, bugs and freezing winds hitting your face. A helmet needs to be firm around the head and cheeks. If you’re unsure of the correct fit, get the helmet salesperson to check for you.

Never buy a second-hand helmet. One drop on to a hard surface can weaken a helmet and this damage is often invisible on the inside of the helmet.
Gloves: Most people put their hands out when they’re about to hit the road. Skiing and cycling gloves are likely to shred instantly; make sure you get proper riding gloves.
Boots: Waterproof riding boots keep your feet dry and protected – and they won’t come off in a crash as shoes can. Plus, you won’t have shoe laces getting tangled up on the scooter which could make you fall.
Jacket and pants: A proper riding jacket and protective leggings can be lightweight, waterproof, cool in summer, warm in winter, eminently stylish, and are often easily stored under the scooter’s seat.

Good jackets have armour (to approved EU safety standards) in the shoulders, elbows and back. Good pants have armour in the knees and hips. A snug fit is essential for the armour to be in the right position.

Dressing to a budget

We asked motorcycle accessory store Motomail to fit us out with good-quality protective riding gear based on three budgets: the price-conscious student, the middle-income commuter, and the stylish big-spender. Here’s an indication of what you can get for your money:

Guide to the table

A = open-face helmet
B = full-face helmet

Second-hand savings

Cost doesn’t have to be a barrier to your safety. We looked on Trade Me for good second-hand riding gear and covered ourselves for just $50, not including the helmet. This included a protective waterproof jacket and pants set with body armour (worn only once!) for $22, a pair of leather riding boots (slightly temperamental zip!) for $18 and a pair of leather gloves (in good condition) for $10.

We found a spanking new, standards-approved full-face helmet for just $65. All up, we were able to cover ourselves from head to toe for just $115.

Basic riding techniques

Practicing these riding techniques will help keep your safe on your scooter.

Emergency braking
The front brake on a scooter provides most of the braking force, so apply more pressure on the front brake and don’t apply too much rear brake. As the weight moves forward under braking, there is less weight on the rear of the scooter and it becomes much easier to lock the rear wheel and skid.

Slow riding
Look at the horizon and try to ride as slowly as possible in a straight line. You’ll get better with practice. It’s also worth practising coming to a stop and choosing which leg to put on the ground. This teaches you balance, helps you understand the physics of the scooter, and will stop you wobbling around in your lane in slow traffic.

Slow U-turns
For most motorcyclists, a tight right-hand turn feels unnatural. But it’s something you’ll have to do often, so practise slow U-turns by positioning your backside on the outside of the seat and tipping the bike into the turn. This allows you to turn tightly by using your body as a counter-balance. Be very smooth and gentle on the throttle to maintain balance.

Scooter emergencies

“Knowing how to react in an emergency (having practised my braking and steering skills) has saved my skin on many occasions.” That’s the verdict from one of our members.

The two crucial techniques to practice for knowing how to react in an emergency are:

Braking: In a safe place (with no one behind you) brake as hard and safely as you can while keeping the scooter in a straight line. Don’t “grab” the brakes with full force – it can cause the wheels to lock up and send you sprawling. Instead, apply a bit of initial pressure on the brake lever and then squeeze hard. This will prepare you for emergency stopping.
Swerving (counter-steering): Look in the direction you want to go and then apply forward pressure on the handlebar in that direction. So if you want to go right, push forward on the right bar. This seems counter-intuitive but it works – pushing the front wheel left causes the bike to rapidly lean to the right and take the right turn. You can then practise straightening up by pushing the opposite bar. This prepares you for avoiding an obstacle in the middle of the road or getting around a car that pokes its nose out from a driveway.

Crash advice

If a crash is inevitable, there are some things you can do to lessen the damage:

Relax: Don’t tense your muscles in a crash – let yourself go limp. This is easier said than done, but tense muscles cause more bruising and give something for your bones to break against.
Leave the scooter: Sudden stopping is the cause of many serious injuries. If you can’t avoid hitting a car, rise up on your toes at the last instant. This with luck will flip you over the car’s bonnet. It’ll be unpleasant – but clearing the vehicle and sliding down the road without hitting anything is likely to result in fewer injuries (especially serious internal injuries) than the sudden impact of going from 50km/h to zero in a heartbeat.
Get off the road: If you’ve crashed on a corner or a place where other traffic may not be able to see you in time to stop, try to get off the road as soon as possible after you’ve checked that you’re physically OK to do so.

The red light won’t turn green

Scooter riders often get frustrated when they sit at a red light that won’t turn green for them. But intersection-construction experts say there’s a way to trigger the lights.

If you look carefully at the road surface at a set of lights, you’ll see rectangular-shaped saw cuts in the road surface. Underneath these cuts are sensor wires that detect metal and tell the control box that a vehicle is waiting to go. Try to position your front wheel directly over one of these saw cuts: the best place is half-a-metre behind the white intersection line and in the centre of the lane.

If that doesn’t work, phone your local council – it can increase the sensitivity of the underground wires.

Safe riding

Tips for keeping yourself safe when riding a scooter.

Take a rider-training course
Riding a scooter is not like riding a push bike and you are far more likely to be badly hurt in a crash. Many riding schools have reasonably priced courses for novice scooter riders and teach skills like basic control, U-turns, slow-riding, braking, cornering, and other useful techniques. Many have scooters available for training – which can be a good way of seeing if a scooter is right for you.

Don’t be nervous about being a novice. These courses, run by experienced instructors, instil confidence as well as skill. As one of our members said: “I attended a one-day practical training course and it was probably the best $50 I’ve ever spent.”

Focus
Distraction is a major cause of accidents. Keep your eyes on the road ahead – not on passers-by, billboards or enticing shop windows. The earlier you identify a potential hazard, the less likely you are to slam into it.

Assume nothing
Don’t assume that another driver has seen you, that they know the road rules at intersections, or that they’ll use their indicators. Don’t head off as soon as the traffic lights turn green – make sure no one is running the red. Don’t assume you’re safe from other road users.

Smooth, smooth, smooth
Scooters are short, light and the rider sits up high. This means they’re agile, but sudden movements can unsettle the scooter and bring on speed wobbles, messy cornering, even possibly a crash. Being smooth and gentle with your throttle and your cornering is the best way to keep the scooter stable and yourself relaxed.

Road positioning
If you’re slower and holding up traffic, it’s considerate to keep left. But on busy city streets stay towards the centre of the lane, watching out for car doors opening and vehicles coming out of driveways.

Keep in people’s mirrors – if you can’t see their mirrors, they can’t see you.

Road surface
Damp roads are especially dangerous for riders; road markings, manhole covers, oil spots, and patches of resealing all become very slippery when damp. Try to pick a line through these hazards while keeping your eyes as far ahead as possible. Keeping to the left or right of a lane helps you avoid oil in the middle as well as the directional arrows painted on the road. If you can’t avoid a hazard, keep the scooter as upright as possible and ride over it slowly.

Never overtake on the inside
Overtaking a vehicle on the inside of a lane is illegal. It’s also dangerous. On a single-lane road, car drivers hardly ever look at their curbside mirror and won’t know you’re there. If the car driver quickly turns left into a driveway or car park, or veers left and squeezes you towards the curb, you’re in trouble. Always overtake on the outside.

Queue-jumping
You can cut through traffic so long as you indicate and then overtake on the outside of a lane (not the inside). Make sure you’ve mastered good balance and slow-riding before you jump a queue, otherwise you could end up whacking several mirrors – not a popular move. Only jump a queue at traffic lights if there is room at the front for you and you’re confident you won’t be holding up faster-accelerating vehicles.

Turn your head before changing lanes
Rear-view mirrors can’t show you everything. So turn your head and check your blind spot before changing lanes.

Flash your brake lights
You may be able to stop a lot quicker than a car. Tap your brakes to flash your rear brake lights several times before stopping or turning at an intersection – that gives the drivers behind a little warning.

Speed differential
Mopeds have a top speed of 50km/h. Avoid higher speed zones as there’s a danger of someone crashing into you from behind. And remember that some motorways have restrictions that don't allow mopeds on them.

For more riding techniques and tips, check out www.scootersurvival.co.nz a website dedicated to helping scooter riders stay safe and injury free.

Scooter maintenance

Keeping your scooter in top mechanical condition helps keep you safe. Scooters over 50cc need a warrant of fitness (WOF), but mopeds (scooters 50cc or under) don’t.

While they don’t need a WOF, mopeds must still be roadworthy. So you can get a ticket for having a bald tyre, broken tail-light, or other safety failure. The best way to keep your moped in sound mechanical condition is to have it regularly serviced (at least once a year) by a service agent.

All scooters should have their engine oil, tyre pressure, indicators, lights and brakes regularly checked.

If the engine runs out of oil it can seize and cost a fortune to repair. If it seizes while you’re riding, it could cause you to crash.
Excessively soft or hard tyres will affect the scooter’s handling, while a bald tyre is treacherous in the wet.
If your indicators and lights aren’t working, nobody knows what you’re doing.
Make sure you can apply full brake pressure without the levers pulling in against the handlebars. If you can’t, have your brakes adjusted so you can apply full braking pressure.

Report by Marc Wendelborn.