If you asked many University of Central Florida students, they would tell you that we’re living in the future. Why? Because the school has teamed up with Spin, an electric scooter company that functions in a manner similar to the Lime Bikes that the school previously had.
Through the use of the Spin app, anyone can rent out a scooter for a base price of one dollar with an additional 15 cents per minute anywhere on campus that they find a scooter. It’s turned out to be a fun past time — or simply an effective way to travel across such a large campus with ease.
With the good, of course, comes the bad. A lot of safety concerns have arrived from pedestrians and even users themselves riding the scooters. The company encourages users to wear a helmet while riding the scooter but most places on campus seem to not provide any.
When you first load the application, it does give you instructions on how to ride the scooter but is not clear about where you should ride the scooter. Many have opted to ride on the road where possible so that they are not running into pedestrians on the sidewalks of campus. Yet that’s not always an option on campus, which creates traffic between bike riders, scooter riders, and pedestrians on foot.
There has always been tension about people riding different modes of transportation on campus and the fear that someone is going to ram into you while walking to class. Many new riders are not skilled enough to effectively dodge and avoid pedestrians, causing collisions. Meanwhile, others are simply too busy on their phones while riding the scooter and are not aware of their surroundings.
Like driving a car, people riding the scooters should be alert of where they are going and be mindful of pedestrians. The scooters actually display a mileage that should be taken into consideration; crowded sidewalks are not the place to be going 11 miles per hour and the brakes should be utilized when stopping.
A few days after the Spin Scooters launched on campus the University of Central Florida Police Department released a video addressing concerns with safety and provided advice to riders.
Safety aside, the scooters have brought a lot of fun onto campus. There has been a surge of users coming out at night riding on campus in big groups. It has encouraged people to get together and ride around campus and it has made it easier to find new things that the campus has to offer. Despite there being an actual club on campus with the name Knight Riders with motorcycles, the name has resurged to describe the large groups traveling Memory Mall at night with scooters.
Thanks to the Student Government’s partnership with Spin, this is just another reason why the university has so much fun to offer. When you scoot around campus, be alert and courteous but most importantly, have fun!