New College Students Choosing Scooters on Campus

Aside from the article that I quote below, I have also heard from others on message boards and through word of mouth that a lot more scooters have popped up on college campuses. Kudos to the University of Wisconsin for expanding their scooter parking, however this expansion comes at the cost of tougher enforcement.

Scooter drivers at UW-Madison will find new, designated parking areas in the heart of campus when the academic year begins, and parking outside of those areas could result in $40 fines, officials say.

The new parking system was created in response to the proliferation of the motorized two-wheelers and the need for scooters to coexist safely with pedestrians on a bustling campus.

"When we had 10 or 100 mopeds on campus, it was fine to have no real rules," says Rob Kennedy, senior transportation planner. "But now we have 1,000 scooter drivers on campus and, at any one time, 600 are parked on campus."

In an effort to reduce the number of pedestrian-scooter conflicts on campus sidewalks and to improve safety, officials are creating 665 marked moped parking spaces scattered in about 25 areas. Previously, there were about 100 marked scooter parking spaces on campus.

Check out the rest of the article here.