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Main Authors: Choi, Seongjin, Yoo, Sunbin, Lee, Sugie
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.26236
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author Choi, Seongjin
Yoo, Sunbin
Lee, Sugie
author_facet Choi, Seongjin
Yoo, Sunbin
Lee, Sugie
contents Do e-scooter speed governance policies yield behavioral safety gains beyond the mechanical cap they impose? A firmware ceiling mechanically prevents speeding, but whether the same riders also generate fewer harsh accelerations and harsh decelerations when the ungoverned mode is withdrawn remains open. We analyze 19.5 million GPS-instrumented trips from 52 South Korean cities (February to November 2023). Our two-stage predict-then-validate design targets two trip-level binary outcomes, any harsh-acceleration event and any harsh-deceleration event. In Phase~I, we predict each outcome's within-user reduction under an ungoverned-to-governed substitution, using a rider-heterogeneous random-parameters binary logit on the pre-ban period. In Phase~II, we validate these predictions using a difference-in-differences specification that exploits the operator's system-wide December~2023 removal of the ungoverned mode. The causal estimates confirm the Phase~I predictions in sign and order of magnitude on both outcomes, are Bonferroni-significant, and satisfy a 3-month pre-ban parallel-trends test. A within-user composition check finds no behavioral offsetting, indicating that firmware removal of an ungoverned mode lowers both harsh-event margins through a purely mechanical channel. These results imply that speed governance policies can deliver measurable safety gains on unconstrained behavioral margins.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_26236
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Do E-Scooter Speed Governance Policies Reduce Harsh Acceleration and Deceleration? Evidence from 19.5 Million Trips Around a Regulatory Ban
Choi, Seongjin
Yoo, Sunbin
Lee, Sugie
Digital Libraries
Do e-scooter speed governance policies yield behavioral safety gains beyond the mechanical cap they impose? A firmware ceiling mechanically prevents speeding, but whether the same riders also generate fewer harsh accelerations and harsh decelerations when the ungoverned mode is withdrawn remains open. We analyze 19.5 million GPS-instrumented trips from 52 South Korean cities (February to November 2023). Our two-stage predict-then-validate design targets two trip-level binary outcomes, any harsh-acceleration event and any harsh-deceleration event. In Phase~I, we predict each outcome's within-user reduction under an ungoverned-to-governed substitution, using a rider-heterogeneous random-parameters binary logit on the pre-ban period. In Phase~II, we validate these predictions using a difference-in-differences specification that exploits the operator's system-wide December~2023 removal of the ungoverned mode. The causal estimates confirm the Phase~I predictions in sign and order of magnitude on both outcomes, are Bonferroni-significant, and satisfy a 3-month pre-ban parallel-trends test. A within-user composition check finds no behavioral offsetting, indicating that firmware removal of an ungoverned mode lowers both harsh-event margins through a purely mechanical channel. These results imply that speed governance policies can deliver measurable safety gains on unconstrained behavioral margins.
title Do E-Scooter Speed Governance Policies Reduce Harsh Acceleration and Deceleration? Evidence from 19.5 Million Trips Around a Regulatory Ban
topic Digital Libraries
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.26236