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Rented e-bicycles present more danger than e-scooters in cities, study reveals

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Rented e-bicycles present more danger than e-scooters in cities, study reveals


For those who want to rent the safest vehicle, thus far the e-bicycle has seemed to be the best choice. But a recently published study from Chalmers University of Technology, which compared these alternatives in a more equitable way than previous research, has shown that this is not true—on the contrary, the e-scooter is safer according to the study’s results. Credit: Chalmers University of Technology, Mia Halleröd Palmgren

E-scooters have often been identified as more dangerous than e-bikes, but that picture changes when they are compared on equal terms. A recently published study from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, shows, in fact, that the crash risk is eight times higher for e-bikes than for e-scooters, calculated based on the trip distance with rental vehicles in cities.

This surprising result provides a better basis for cities to make decisions on how much to facilitate different types of micromobility. The paper is published in the Journal of Safety Research.

“Previous studies have often compared apples with oranges,” says Marco Dozza, Full Professor in Active Safety and Road-User Behavior at Chalmers. “They have lumped together e-bicycles with ordinary bicycles, and haven’t taken into account where, how and how much these vehicles are used—or whether they are rented or privately owned. When we took all these factors into account, we found that e-scooterists actually have a lower rate of crashes than e-cyclists.”

GPS data contributed to equitable comparison

The study is based on a unique data set from trips using rented e-bicycles and e-scooters in seven European cities: Gävle in Sweden, Berlin and Düsseldorf in Germany, and the U.K. cities of Cambridge, Kettering, Liverpool and Northampton.

The researchers analyzed 686 crashes involving e-scooterists and 35 involving e-cyclists. The high number of crashes involving e-scooters reflects that they were used much more frequently than e-bicycles. But their was actually much lower—regardless of whether the risk was calculated on the basis of the number, duration, or distance of the trips.

“When we calculated using trip distance, it turned out that e-cyclists were eight times more likely to have a crash than e-scooterists. It’s a result that surprised us,” says Dozza.

This is the first time that a study of this kind has been able to compare micromobility in such a detailed and equitable way, and from so many countries and cities. A key to being able to do the study in this way was the use of GPS data. This made it possible to measure what is termed “exposure”—which refers to how much a vehicle is actually used—with greater precision than previously.

All vehicles in the study were rented and used in city centers, which makes the comparison more equitable than previous studies that have often mixed together urban and rural settings, or mixed rented vehicles with privately owned vehicles.

Safety of e-scooters grossly underestimated

Despite their results, the researchers stress that they should not be seen as definitive proof that e-scooters are safer than e-bicycles. Uncertainties remain, such as under-reporting of crashes and differences in the way these vehicles are used.

“But what we can say is that previous studies have grossly underestimated the safety of e-scooters in relation to e-bicycles,” says Dozza. “This in turn could have consequences for how cities regulate and plan micromobility. In some cities, attempts are being made to steer micromobility towards e-bicycles, which are considered to be better because previous research has created the idea that all types of cycling are safer than all types of e-scootering,” he adds.

“Now that it turns out that isn’t correct, decision-makers may need to think again. The results might also affect consumers’ decisions if they have rented e-bicycles instead of e-scooters because they believed it’s safer,” he says.

According to the researchers, future analyses of crash risk should always include GPS data and precise information about how the vehicles are used. They would also like to see additional comparable data sets from other parts of the world; in particular, data sets that include more e-bicycle journeys in order to improve statistical reliability.

“With more detailed data, we can make better decisions about transport for the future. And to achieve that, it’s important that we compare apples with apples,” says Dozza.

More about the research

The study only compares e-scooters with e-bicycles, unlike previous studies where e-bicycles and ordinary bicycles were lumped together in the same group. It is also the first study to also include several other important factors in the comparison: ownership, geographical location, usage, and exposure.

  • Only rented vehicles were included in the study.
  • The locations were limited to highly urbanized city centers using geofencing.
  • Usage type was further controlled by comparing e-scooters and e-bicycles from the same rental company.
  • Exposure was investigated using three different measures: number, duration, and distance of the trips.

The difference in crash risk between these vehicle types was greatest when trip distance was used as the measure for exposure, when the crash risk was 8.3 times higher for e-bicycles than for e-scooters. But even when using the other two measures for exposure, the crash risk was considerably higher for e-bicycles.

The data in the study comes from GPS data from trips with rented e-scooters and e-bicycles in seven European cities in the years 2022–2023 and includes a total of 686 reported crashes with e-scooters and 35 with e-bicycles. Despite the low number of crashes with e-bicycles, the results of the study are statistically significant when the data from all the cities was weighed together.

More information:
Rahul Rajendra Pai et al, Is e-cycling safer than e-scootering? Comparing injury risk across Europe when vehicle-type, location, exposure, usage, and ownership are controlled, Journal of Safety Research (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.jsr.2025.06.015

Citation:
Rented e-bicycles present more danger than e-scooters in cities, study reveals (2025, September 12)
retrieved 12 September 2025
from https://techxplore.com/news/2025-09-rented-bicycles-danger-scooters-cities.html

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Coats Digital launches AI-powered GSDQuest for garment costing

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Coats Digital launches AI-powered GSDQuest for garment costing



Coats Digital is proud to announce the launch of GSDQuest – a pioneering AI-powered tool that dramatically accelerates and simplifies the garment costing process. Built as a powerful enhancement to the award-winning GSDCost solution, GSDQuest enables brands and manufacturers to generate a fully detailed, standardised Bill of Labour in seconds — from as little as a single garment image.

GSDQuest leverages advanced artificial intelligence to analyse product images and automatically identify garment design and construction elements. Using Coats Digital’s proprietary QED Library, it instantly generates a standardised Bill of Labour, removing the need for time-consuming manual input. This breakthrough accelerates costing from hours to mere seconds while delivering unprecedented accuracy and consistency.

Coats Digital has launched GSDQuest, an AI-powered tool that transforms garment costing by generating a standardised Bill of Labour in seconds from product images.
Built on the proven GSDCost methodology, it leverages AI and the QED Library for accurate SMV analysis, enabling fair benchmarking, faster decisions, and smarter, more sustainable supply chain collaboration.

Crucially, GSDQuest is designed to be accessible and user-friendly for all professionals — not just certified GSD practitioners. For the first time, anyone in the supply chain can benefit from the power of GSDCost’s award-winning, scientifically grounded SMV garment analysis, instantly and effortlessly.

Building on the proven scientific methodology of GSDCost, which uses internationally recognised standard motion codes and Standard Minute Values (SMVs), GSDQuest ensures that all costing outputs are grounded in robust, data-driven time-motion science. This scientific foundation supports fair and transparent benchmarking across brands and manufacturers, enabling more precise cost prediction, fact-based negotiation, and sustainable supply chain collaboration.

Jonathan McCormack, Senior Engineering Director, Coats Digital, said: “GSDQuest represents a significant leap forward for the apparel industry. By combining AI-powered image analysis with our trusted QED Library, we are automating the complex and traditionally manual process of garment costing with advanced next-gen technology. And for the first time, this power is in the hands of any user, regardless of technical background. GSDQuest can be applied at any stage of the product lifecycle — from initial design through to production approvals — and is built with multi-modal AI that can make presumptive analyses from both visible and hidden design information. It works across images, PDFs, tech packs and more — and can analyse multiple garments at once. This not only drastically reduces lead times but also enhances accuracy and standardisation, empowering brands and manufacturers to respond effectively to increasingly volatile market conditions.”

Traditional costing often requires technical and costing teams to spend hours analysing design features and building operation-level estimates using internal libraries. GSDQuest eliminates these repetitive tasks and transforms costing into a strategic, intelligent process.

Key features of GSDQuest include:

  • Automatic recognition of garment features from multiple product images
  • Integration with the QED Library for construction method mapping
  • Instant generation of standardised Bill of Labour
  • Detection of hidden design elements for comprehensive costing
  • Scalability across product categories and vendor networks
  • Upcoming API integration for seamless workflow embedding

Kunal Kapur, Managing Director, Coats Digital, said: “The fashion industry is at a tipping point. Legacy processes can no longer keep pace with the speed, complexity and cost pressures brands and manufacturers face. GSDQuest represents a game-changing shift — replacing guesswork and manual effort with intelligent automation, scientific consistency and real-time accuracy. It’s part of our mission to harness AI to solve fashion’s biggest challenges — helping our customers work faster, more fairly, and more sustainably. The result is better decisions, stronger partnerships, and a smarter supply chain for all.”

As well as manufacturers, GSDQuest is designed for use by brands, costing teams, technical and sourcing professionals, to support early costing, sample evaluation, and final approvals. Its seamless integration into tech pack creation and design workflows is expected to significantly enhance global supply chain efficiency and collaboration.

GSDCost is the global standard for establishing accurate, sustainable garment manufacturing methods and Standard Minute Values (SMVs). Grounded in time-motion science, it provides a robust, data-driven foundation for precise cost benchmarking and fair wage practices. GSDCost enables manufacturers to define operations using internationally accepted motion codes, ensuring consistency, transparency, and compliance across complex supply chains.

Note: The headline, insights, and image of this press release may have been refined by the Fibre2Fashion staff; the rest of the content remains unchanged.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (HU)



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Top Home Depot Promo Codes for October 2025

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Top Home Depot Promo Codes for October 2025


The company pretty much invented the hardware superstore when it began in 1978, just by being so big. They inflated the neighborhood tool shop into a whole city of lumber, hammers, caulk, power saws, and big rolls of wire. I would know I’m in a Home Depot blindfolded, because of a distinct quality to the air—crisp and particulate, smelling like wood dust and paint and the oiled metal of power tools. The Home Depot smell is buried deep in my childhood, filed somewhere between “building a deck” and “first day of spring.” Anyway, the Home Depot website is just as big. And while it doesn’t smell like sawdust, it’s easier to find stuff. And as it turns out, the hardware giant also goes hard on discounts, slashing grills and garden and outdoor power tools by up to 50%, not to mention smokers like the new Traieger Woodridge (8/10, WIRED Recommends) also sold at Home Depot. Our roundup includes Home Depot promo codes, new customer coupons, free shipping offers, and Pro rewards to drop prices by as much as 60% when you buy online.

Check out WIRED’s recommendations in our guide to the Best Grills to Up Your Cookout Game. Power tools and hand tools are also discounted, as are garden flowers. Nervous about planting? WIRED has some advice for first time gardeners.

Get 10% Off With Home Depot Promo Codes and Coupons

Autumn is in the air, which means falling leaves and everyone’s favorite spooky holiday. Home Depot is the perfect place for a myriad of needs as the seasons change, including leaf blowers and Home Depot’s iconic Halloween decor collection that just launched now up to 50% off, including outdoor and yard decor (which includes free delivery). WIRED writer Nena Farrell reviewed Home Depot’s iconic giant Halloween skeleton a few months ago.

If you register for Home Depot’s Style and Decor newsletter, you get a special code for 10 percent off on furniture and home accents. Or if you sign up for the Home Depot coupon newsletter, you get an immediate $5 off the next in-store purchase of $50 or more. Another easy way to get 5% off at Home Depot is to set up a subscription for your go to products and automatically get 5% off and free delivery on your order.

Use Top Home Depot Coupons for up to $500 Off Tools, Appliances, and More

Home Depot’s website makes it super easy to shop the best current discounts by department in the savings portal, making it easier than ever to find the best deals for any home reno need. Right now, savings include up to $400 off (including up to 50% off) on top tool brands including Milwaukee, Ryobi, and DeWalt, plus, you’ll get a free battery or tool kit with tool purchase.

Home Depot also offers huge savings on bundle deals, including up to $400 off LG and $500 off Samsung kitchen appliances when you buy 2 or more, and huge savings on home decor, like 40% off living room furniture including sectionals and modular sofas. You can also shop top sellers like sectional sofas for under $500. Plus, the Home Depot Fall Savings event is always a great way to save more on tools and other home essentials.

Get 40% Off With Home Depot Deal of the Day Coupons

Home Depot coupons of the moment include whopper deals like 15% off storage solutions, 35% off washers and dryers, and $2,000 off LG kitchen appliances when you buy 2 or more. Explore more deals on kitchen and other furniture too, by checking out the deals of the moment here. Like we’ve stated, there are so many ways to save at Home Depot, even when you’re shopping online. Special Buy of the Days include steep price drops on certain products or entire brands—but the significant price drops only last for 24 hours. Recently they’ve highlighted essentials for the Fall Bath Event, in which daily deals include 40% off faucets, 25% off toilets and bathtubs, and 40% off vanities. That’s a whole lot of savings for one of the most expensive home renovations you can do.

Deals include smart home items WIRED has covered extensively, like Nest learning thermostats (9/10, WIRED Recommends). Need advice on setting up a smart home? WIRED has your back. Not only do Deals of the Days (and over 1 million products) qualify for free shipping, but you can also get free delivery to your local Home Depot store or straight to your door with online orders over $45.

Save 20% With Home Depot Pro Xtra Discounts

Home Depot also offers a loyalty program called Pro Xtra for frequent flyers, whether you’re a contractor or just undergoing a serious remodel this year. This means exclusive prices up to 20% off, 10% discounts on bulk buys, a rewards point system, and occasional $50 off $250 coupons too. Painting the house? The program also nets you 10 to 20 percent off paint and primers. Pro Xtra offers multiple tiers, from basic membership to Elite and VIP.

Special Buys of the Week are bargains that are worth checking out, and pros can get discounts with the Pro Special Buy of the Week—and that’s on top of exclusive discounts and everyday discounted pricing on items. Hot offers this week include: free tools or batteries with your purchase of tools from Milwaukee, RYOBI, and more premium brands, plus 20% off flooring. Also grab 40% off bathroom products like Kohler showers, tubs, vanities, faucets, tubs, and toilets, including luxury upgrades like Horow smart toilets and bidets.

Get 10% Off With the Home Depot Military Discount

Home Depot has long maintained a program offering discounts to active service members, veterans, and their spouses, offering 10 percent off all eligible purchases. You’ll need to register to verify your military status through SheerID, and from then on you can just scan your virtual ID or enter your phone number at checkout, same way you do at the grocery store. Note that military discounts are limited to $400 each calendar year, and this resets each year. Some commodity products are excluded, including lumber, wire, and building materials. Appliances are also out in the cold, but military families may still find special deals or tax-free shopping through Home Depot’s Military Exchange Program.



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The hidden military pressures behind the new push for small nuclear reactors

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The hidden military pressures behind the new push for small nuclear reactors


Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Donald Trump’s recent visit to the UK saw a so-called “landmark partnership” on nuclear energy. London and Washington announced plans to build 20 small modular reactors and also develop microreactor technology—despite the fact no such plants have yet been built commercially anywhere in the world.

The UK , Keir Starmer, promised these plans will deliver a “golden age” of that will also “drive down bills.” Yet the history of has been decades of overhype, soaring costs and constant delays. Around the world, the trends point the wrong way.

So why the renewed excitement about going nuclear? The real reasons have less to do with energy security, or climate change—and far more to do with military power.

At first sight, the case may seem obvious. Nuclear supporters frame small modular reactors, or SMRs, as vital for cutting emissions, meeting rising demand for electricity from cars and data centers. With large nuclear plants now prohibitively expensive, smaller reactors are billed as an exciting new alternative.

But these days even the most optimistic industry analyses concede that nuclear—even SMRs—is unlikely to compete with renewables. One analysis in New Civil Engineer published earlier this year concluded that SMRs are “the most expensive source per kilowatt of electricity generated when compared with natural gas, traditional nuclear and renewables.”

Independent assessments—for instance by the formerly pro-nuclear Royal Society—find that 100% renewable systems outperform any energy system, including nuclear on cost, flexibility and security. This helps explain why worldwide statistical analysis shows nuclear power is not generally linked to carbon emissions reductions, while renewables are.

Partly, the enthusiasm for SMRs can be explained by the loudest institutional voices tending to have formal pro-nuclear remits or interests: they include the industry itself and its suppliers, nuclear agencies, and governments with entrenched military nuclear programs. For these interests, the only question is which kinds of nuclear reactors to develop, and how fast. They don’t wonder if we should build reactors in the first place: the need is seen as self-evident.

At least big nuclear reactors have benefited from economies of scale and decades of technological optimization. Many SMR designs are just “powerpoint reactors,” existing only in slides and feasibility studies. Claims these unbuilt designs “will cost less” are speculative at best.

Investment markets know this. While financiers see SMR hype as a way to profit from billions in government subsidies, their own analyses are less enthusiastic about the technology itself.

So why then, all this attention to nuclear in general and smaller reactors in particular? There is clearly more to this than meets the eye.

The hidden link

The neglected factor is the military dependence on civil nuclear industries. Maintaining a nuclear-armed navy or weapons program requires constant access to generic technologies, skilled workers and special materials. Without a civilian nuclear industry, military nuclear capabilities are significantly more challenging and costly to sustain.

Nuclear submarines are especially important here as they would very likely require national reactor industries and their supply chains even if there was no civil nuclear power. Barely affordable even vessel by vessel, nuclear submarines become even more expensive when the costs of this “submarine industrial base” is factored in.

Rolls-Royce is an important link here, as it already builds the UK’s submarine reactors and is set to build the newly announced civil SMRs. The company said openly in 2017 that a civil SMR program would “relieve the Ministry of Defense of the burden of developing and retaining skills and capability.”

Here, as emphasized by Nuclear Intelligence Weekly in 2020, the Rolls-Royce SMR program has an important “symbiosis with UK military needs.” It is this dependency that allows military costs (in the words of a former executive with submarine builders BAE Systems), to be “masked” behind civilian programs.

By funding civil nuclear projects, taxpayers and consumers cover military uses of nuclear power in subsidies and higher bills—without the added spending appearing in defense budgets.

When the UK government funded us to investigate the value of this transfer, we put it at around £5 billion per year in the UK alone. These costs are masked from , covered by revenues from higher electricity prices and the budgets of supposedly civilian government agencies.

This is not a conspiracy but a kind of political gravitational field. Once governments see nuclear weapons as a marker of global status, the funding and political support becomes self-perpetuating.

The result is a strange sort of circularity: nuclear power is justified by and cost arguments that don’t stand up, but is in reality sustained for strategic reasons that remain unacknowledged.

A global pattern

The UK is not unique, though other nuclear powers are much more candid. US energy secretary Chris Wright described the US-UK nuclear deal as important for “securing nuclear supply chains across the Atlantic.” Around US$25 billion a year (£18.7 billion) flows from civil to military nuclear activity in the US.

Russia and China are both quite open about their own inseparable civil-military links. French president Emmanuel Macron put it clearly: “Without civilian nuclear, no military nuclear, without military nuclear, no civilian nuclear.”

Across these states, military nuclear capabilities are seen as a way to stay at the world’s “top table”. An end to their civilian program would threaten not just jobs and energy, but their great power status.

The next frontier

Beyond submarines, the development of “microreactors” is opening up new military uses for nuclear power. Microreactors are even smaller and more experimental than SMRs. Though they can make profits by milking military procurement budgets, they make no sense from a commercial energy standpoint.

However, microreactors are seen as essential in US plans for battlefield power, space infrastructure and new “high energy” anti-drone and missile weaponry. Prepare to see them become ever more prominent in “civil” debates—precisely because they serve military goals.

Whatever view is taken of these military developments, it makes no sense to pretend they are unrelated to the civil nuclear sector. The real drivers of the recent US–UK nuclear agreement lie in military projection of force, not civilian power production. Yet this remains absent from most discussions of energy policy.

It is a crucial matter of democracy that there be honesty about what is really going on.

Provided by
The Conversation


This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.The Conversation

Citation:
The hidden military pressures behind the new push for small nuclear reactors (2025, October 27)
retrieved 27 October 2025
from https://techxplore.com/news/2025-10-hidden-military-pressures-small-nuclear.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.





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