Our Top Tips For Riding Your E-Scooter at Night

Electric scooters are a convenient, safe, reliable and eco-friendly way of getting around your city, day or night.

They save you from the hassle of parking, are significantly cheaper to run (and buy) than a car, and even better, due to their small size and folding mechanism, they are easy to store and transport, meaning they can go with you wherever you go.

While you always need to make sure you ride an electric scooter safely, you need to take even more care when night riding.

In this article, we're going to share our top tips for riding scooters safely at night.

From ensuring your e scooter has bright headlights, to making sure you always wear reflective clothing, there are multiple ways to ride an electric scooter safely at night, and still have fun.

Let's get into it.

Ride With Other People

When you’re on the road at night, if you can, always ride with a friend or two—the more, the merrier. While that's not always possible, life is unpredictable after all, if you’re going somewhere and know that you’ll be on the road when it’s dark, try and plan to have a couple of friends out there riding with you.

Not only will this help you feel more secure and comfortable riding at night, but there'll be someone to assist you if anything unfortunate happens.

Riding as a group also makes you more visible to other road users, making them aware of your presence, and hopefully driving with more caution as they pass you.

Keep Your Front and Rear Lights On

Always always always make sure you're visible to other road users. Even if you think the daylight is fine, always err on the side of caution and ride with your front and rear lights on. As dusk approaches and night falls, this isn't a suggestion, it's essential for both your safety and the safety of the other road users.

If you’re riding on the road with vehicles, things happening at speed, and keeping your lights on will allow oncoming vehicles to see you. For example, after noticing you on the road, a good driver will gauge how much distance they should keep from you.

We aren't talking a dim light here either. The quality of your lights matters a great deal. When you have weak lights, their light beams aren’t projected far enough, making them appear dim. This makes it harder for drivers to see you.

Make sure your headlights and rear lights have strong lights anytime you’re going out on the road at night. If they have a flashing function, even better.

The More Visible You Are On Your Night Ride, the Better

When riding an electric scooter on the road, you’re more vulnerable than other road users. If it’s nighttime, your vulnerability increases significantly.

It helps to make sure you’re as visible as possible so that all road users to notice you.

There are a few creative ways to achieve this besides installing front and rear lights. One of them is by using neon LED strips, preferably blinking ones. These not only make your scooter exceptionally cool, but they also make it impossible for people to ignore.

Choose protective clothing such as reflective clothing when out on the road, especially when riding at night, as a reflective vest will reflect light when illuminated by vehicle headlights, making it a lot easier for drivers to spot you.

Carry a GoPro

While we aren't saying you're going to have an accident if you ride at night, just in case you do, it's always a good idea to have evidence of what happened. Riding with a GoPro turned on will capture sufficient evidence in case of accidents and incidents.

Mount the GoPro to the front or back of your helmet, or mount a camera onto your e-scooter itself.

If you don't want to think about things going wrong, treat riding with a GoPro as a way to improve your riding skills, or ensuring you keep sweet memories.

Avoid Unknown Routes

It’s fun to explore and ride new roads, however, doing so at night is certainly not the best of ideas.

When night riding, you need to keep your wits about you. You want to know the road you’re on like the back of your hand. The last thing you want is to be on a strange road and find yourself in an unexpected situation like going round a sharp bend that you didn't know was there.

When riding an electric scooter at night, try to plan the route beforehand and go through the map on your phone to learn the road you’ll be on before you ride it. This way, you‘ll know where intersections are and where to anticipate traffic and any other chaotic activity.

The goal is to feel as comfortable and at ease as possible when navigating the road.

Stay Focused

Just as you’d expect other road users to maintain their concentration when driving or riding, the same is expected of you. The only difference is you’re more vulnerable than other road users, meaning you should stay laser-focused.

Don’t listen to music while you’re riding, especially at night. Take your earbuds out of your ears, even if no music is playing. Most earbuds contain active noise cancellation, which will make it harder for you to hear what’s going on around you. That’s dangerous if you’re night riding. You need to be fully aware of your surroundings at all times.

Also, avoid making or taking calls while you’re scooting, and bear in mind that some areas have laws that prohibit this, and for a good reason.

Ride in Well-Lit Areas

For electric scooter riders looking to take their scooters out into the night, it’s important to ride in well-lit areas as they’re easier to navigate and you’re easier to spot.

Doing some research on the route you want to take beforehand will ensure you understand the conditions of the road you’re night riding on. It will also help you select well-lit roads for your night rides.

Wear Your Safety Gear When Night Riding

When you're riding an electric scooter, day or night, always wear a helmet. Your head isn't as strong as concrete.

According to statistics, helmets reduce the risk of severe crash injuries by up to 70%. They aren’t that heavy and are pretty comfortable to wear. Besides, they also protect you from the cold as you ride. Two birds, one stone.

Wearing a helmet doesn’t make you less of a man or woman. It shows that you’re an adult who takes their safety seriously. As one should when they ride an electric scooter.

There are various protective gear options to choose from to ensure safe riding. From reflective tape and helmets, to elbow pads and knee pads, there is dedicated e-scooter protective clothing that has been especially designed to keep you safe from minor incidents and crashes.

Keep a Charged Phone on You at All Times

It's essential to keep your phone on you when going on night rides. If you can, fully charge it before you ride. This will come in handy if anything untoward happens and you need to call for help.

For example, you may find that it’s darker than you expected, and you need to call an Uber.

We also recommend forming a group with some of your closest friends, especially those who ride electric scooters. You can then send real-time links to the group whenever you’re going somewhere or simply update your friends when you get where you’re headed.

If you fail to provide an update, your friends know to reach out and see if everything is okay.

Find Out What the Local Laws Say

When riding out at night, the last thing you want is to be stopped by law enforcement or have a ticket written against you. Always know what the law says about riding your electric scooter at night before going out on the road.

In areas that allow night riding, there are likely to be specific regulations you must follow.

For example, you may be required to have brake lights on your scooter or indicators to ensure people in other vehicles can tell when you want to switch lanes or pull off the road. You may also be required to wear safety gear as mentioned above, as per the laws in your location.

Make Sure Your Scooter Is Fully Charged Before Leaving

Not only would it be wildly inconvenient if your electric scooter died on you while riding out at night, it would also be incredibly unsafe.

If your scooter uses lithium batteries, charge appropriately before heading out, but avoid overcharging it. These kinds of batteries tend to burn when constantly overcharged, drastically shortening their lifespan.

You should also use the charger your manufacturer provided for the scooter. Different chargers may draw more power than your scooter needs, similarly damaging the batteries. Figure out how much power you need for the ride, and ensure your scooter’s battery levels are up to par.

Riding at night safely

Riding an electric scooter at night is exciting and fun. You get to experience the magic of the city from a different dimension. However, at the same time, this can be a risky adventure if you don't ride safely.

Which is why we put this guide of electric scooter riding tips to help you ride safely at night.

Besides planning the route in advance, charging your scooter, and wearing safety gear, you should also ensure you have your cell phone with you, install LED strips for better visibility, and stay in well-lit areas.

Make sure your electric scooter is in good condition, especially your tires. Worn-out tires are known for losing traction, resulting in skidding- which may cause you to lose control.

We know these aren’t the only rules you should follow to ride your electric scooter safely. If you have a tip you swear by that we’ve missed, feel free to write it in the comments! It will surely help other electric scooter lovers like you.