Carriers have a potentially huge business opportunity with users of e-scooters – motorized scooters popping up in medium- and large-sized cities in the U.S. and abroad. The reason: scooter users are worried about harming themselves when they use the devices but more than half haven’t considered purchasing coverage, according to a new industry survey.

Nearly half of millennial e-scooter riders worry about harming themselves or others when riding, but 43 percent haven’t considered purchasing coverage, found the survey sponsored by VOOM, a managing general agent that specializes in insurance for micro mobility devices including e-scooters, e-bikes and powersports.

More results: 40 percent of e-scooter riders said they have either been in an accident or know someone who has, and 61 percent said they’d spend extra money beyond the ride cost to cover injury and third-party liability service.

Digging deeper, the survey also found that a bit over half of respondents said they’d prefer pay-per-ride insurance versus annual or monthly insurance plans for e-scooter rider coverage.

VOOM CEO and co-founder Tomer Kashi, a scooter rider himself, noted in prepared remarks that scooter riders are getting into more accidents even as users don’t know that they’re not covered by insurance. He said that riders must be educated about risks and how they can protect themselves.

VOOM said it conducted the survey in June 2019 via Google Consumer Surveys, using a representative survey of 1,000-plus regular e-scooter riders in the United States, ages 18 to 65.

Source: VOOM