Post Reply
1 of 1
This is why I got a dash cam last week... Scooters and E-Bikes
3,146 Views |
28 Replies |
Last: 3 days ago by maroon barchetta
Put a campus wide speed limit on them. Make upd get out of their air conditioned cars and address the problem.
Ban ear buds while on scooters or walking near traffic instead.
Quote:
Texas A&M weighs total ban on scooters and e-bikes following 37% crash surge
Texas A&M System regents raised the warning after campus crashes involving micromobility devices rose 37 percent from 2024 to 2025, KBTX reported. Peter Lange, Texas A&M's chief operating officer, told regents the university recorded 52 incidents last year, with about half resulting in injury.
And that is not half of it. Students ride those scooters, like they (or their victims) will live forever.
https://www.chron.com/news/article/texas-a-m-scooters-e-bikes-ban-22423899.php
One the one hand, yes, students should be more responsible while riding these things, and maybe penalized if behaving exceedingly recklessly.
On the other hand, this seems to be blown way out of proportion. They're considering banning these over 52 crashes in 2025. For 82,000 students, 1 out of every ~1600 students crashing seems pretty low, honestly. And what counts as a crash? I hit an uneven sidewalk and fell off my scooter but was unharmed, or actual damage was caused?
And the "37% increase" just means it went from 38 to 52. A 200% increase would still be a pretty small total number!
On the other hand, this seems to be blown way out of proportion. They're considering banning these over 52 crashes in 2025. For 82,000 students, 1 out of every ~1600 students crashing seems pretty low, honestly. And what counts as a crash? I hit an uneven sidewalk and fell off my scooter but was unharmed, or actual damage was caused?
And the "37% increase" just means it went from 38 to 52. A 200% increase would still be a pretty small total number!
Drewmeister said:
One the one hand, yes, students should be more responsible while riding these things, and maybe penalized if behaving exceedingly recklessly.
On the other hand, this seems to be blown way out of proportion. They're considering banning these over 52 crashes in 2025. For 82,000 students, 1 out of every ~1600 students crashing seems pretty low, honestly. And what counts as a crash? I hit an uneven sidewalk and fell off my scooter but was unharmed, or actual damage was caused?
And the "37% increase" just means it went from 38 to 52. A 200% increase would still be a pretty small total number!
That was my feeling, as well. Much ado about nothing.
halibut sinclair said:
Ban ear buds while on scooters or walking near traffic instead.
I am sure this would work about as well as banning cell phones while driving.
Drewmeister said:
One the one hand, yes, students should be more responsible while riding these things, and maybe penalized if behaving exceedingly recklessly.
On the other hand, this seems to be blown way out of proportion. They're considering banning these over 52 crashes in 2025. For 82,000 students, 1 out of every ~1600 students crashing seems pretty low, honestly. And what counts as a crash? I hit an uneven sidewalk and fell off my scooter but was unharmed, or actual damage was caused?
And the "37% increase" just means it went from 38 to 52. A 200% increase would still be a pretty small total number!
All it takes is a death followed by one massive lawsuit. Best to get on top of it now.
Dumb question, are these things supposed to be driven in the streets, on sidewalks, or on the shoulder. Kids drive them everywhere with no regard for traffic laws
Try moving around campus at class change with these things all over the place.
DonHenley said:
Dumb question, are these things supposed to be driven in the streets, on sidewalks, or on the shoulder. Kids drive them everywhere with no regard for traffic laws
Transportation code 551.352 classifies them as "motor assisted scooters." They are allowed to operate on roads with a speed limit of <35 mph, and are allowed on sidewalks and pedestrian paths.
UPD doesn't begin to have the manpower necessary to do more than spot enforcement on scooters, or bicycles for that matter. They have something like 6-8 patrol officers on shift at any given time, and of those only 2 or 3 are qualified bike officers. Officers on foot can stand around at intersections, but if a kid on a scooter doesn't want to stop, that officer has no real way to chase them down.
I would guess that the accidents that UPD records are ones that cause serious enough injuries or damage to property that UPD gets called.
Maybe I'm just cynical, but I do wonder if the real impetus might be one or more members of the Board of Regents having a close call with a scooter while walking from Stallings garage to the MSC.
I know that I almost wiped a young lady out while pulling out of the parking lot at Blue Bell this past spring. It shook me up good. She was flying down the sidewalk but was hidden from my eyesight by other parked cars. It's made me extremely hesitant when I drive on campus now. Don't know the answer but I've heard of similar stories from friends. I'm actually surprised there haven't been more accidents.
The roads are so chaotic, that I think we should let young people drink at 18 and smoke cigarettes but make them wait till age 25 to drive, so we can get the roads back! They can take public transportation or rideshare.
K-Barriers: Adjustable-width metal squeeze-plate gates that block motorized handlebars while letting non-motorized and mobility traffic pass.
A couple of these, strategically placed, should do the trick.
A couple of these, strategically placed, should do the trick.
I've got my dash cam to protect me from the local police!
I was on campus last year and was stopped at the stop sign at Penberthy and Joe Kimbrough during class change. I was taking a right and as I took my turn to go, a girl on a scooter to my rear right goes blasting full speed up the bike lane and blew through the stop sign. If I hadn't seen her at the last minute and stopped my turn, I would have wiped her out as I turned right. I believe she might have had headphones on but I know for sure she did not slow down, did not look left or right, and did not have any concern for traffic whatsoever.
Its almost as if 80k kids shouldn't be in class all at the same time on the same campus.......
If they want the streets to be safer they should let less people in. We didn't have these problems when there were 40, 50, or even 60 thousand students......
If they want the streets to be safer they should let less people in. We didn't have these problems when there were 40, 50, or even 60 thousand students......
Smeghead4761 said:
Maybe I'm just cynical, but I do wonder if the real impetus might be one or more members of the Board of Regents having a close call with a scooter while walking from Stallings garage to the MSC.
You might be onto something there. from the Eagle's article about the regents discussion about scooters (https://theeagle.com/news/a_m/article_4a62c629-54b6-4ec4-8259-69559b5cb8d7.html)
Quote:
In the days before last week's board of regents meeting, Regent Sam Torn observed the scooters and nearly became one of those accidents, leading to his calling for a discussion of scooters during the Committee on Academic and Student Affairs. "I was on campus last week and through the weekend. During that time, I had the opportunity to formulate some observations on our next important student safety topic, scooter safety. This is increasingly a concern for our universities around the country and indeed in this community," Torn said. "A couple of observations from four days of being on this campus just last week and intentionally observing scooter traffic. First, no one, and I mean no one, wears a helmet. Second, almost everyone on the scooter was either A, talking on their phone or listening to something on their headphones while paying little, if any, attention to their immediate surroundings. Finally, virtually none of these operating scooters obeyed any basic traffic laws."
Tim, we musn't let common sense enter this highly intellectual conversation about the university. We can't risk losing money by reducing enrollment. This is a bastion of higher learning, and we need those dollars per head count. That way, we can be everything to everyone, and conduct amazing research on things that virtually no students will ever utilize in their professional careers.
Regarding dash cams, what brand do you recommend?
Are they easy to self install, or is it better to go to a place like Best Buy?
Are they easy to self install, or is it better to go to a place like Best Buy?
Well, I don't think the Regents will approve reducing enrollment at Texas A&M University in College Station. I think they'd rather star in their own drag show than vote to cut enrollment. Even the current 'cap' on undergraduate enrollment growth had to be offset by a push to increase graduate student numbers, which hasn't worked out so hot thanks to cuts in external funding. Plus, what would we cut to reduce enrollment? Many of the programs that aren't engineering take in a lot of students who don't do well enough to stay in engineering, and teach courses everyone is required to take by the state's general education laws (like intro science, math, etc). If Texas A&M suddenly accepted 20% fewer undergraduate students than it accepted the year before, it would be unable to balance the budget to pay faculty, but its the tenured faculty in engineering and medicine that cost the most. Better use of your time is to just wait 10-20 years for the glut of young Texans to pass through, although we will probably see multiple small regional schools shutter before big flagships pare back. It's very difficult to de-grow without wiping out entirely.
Personally, I think the mini-mobility situation could be solved if there were just more buses on and off campus. No one will lug a scooter that they aren't allowed to bring inside the building if they can easily ride a bus to campus. A&M transportation has 50 new buses coming, but apparently all to replace old buses. We need more buses and more drivers. At the moment, the Howdy-1 route runs every 12 minutes during business hours, which is fantastic, but we need more routes running more frequently, especially on days without classes like weekends and holidays (students still need to eat and buy groceries, grad students still need to come to campus to do lab work, etc). Otherwise everything will get even worse as new construction further reduces parking availability on campus.
Personally, I think the mini-mobility situation could be solved if there were just more buses on and off campus. No one will lug a scooter that they aren't allowed to bring inside the building if they can easily ride a bus to campus. A&M transportation has 50 new buses coming, but apparently all to replace old buses. We need more buses and more drivers. At the moment, the Howdy-1 route runs every 12 minutes during business hours, which is fantastic, but we need more routes running more frequently, especially on days without classes like weekends and holidays (students still need to eat and buy groceries, grad students still need to come to campus to do lab work, etc). Otherwise everything will get even worse as new construction further reduces parking availability on campus.
They have become really dangerous on campus, weaving between walking paths and sidewalks and bike lanes and regular streets. A lot can reach speeds of 20+ mph (some even faster).
There are a lot more accidents than reported above. Those are just the serious ones. A person a week getting nailed by a cruising piece of metal at 20 mph isn't a good thing. And for every one of those there are 50 minor bumps or near misses.
Why not let someone just ride their gas powered motorcycle across campus at 20 mph wherever they want? What is the difference - simply that they are electric powered and you stand on them?
The local golf course has more rules about where you can drive the electric powered carts to protect the grass than campus does to protect actual people.
There are a lot more accidents than reported above. Those are just the serious ones. A person a week getting nailed by a cruising piece of metal at 20 mph isn't a good thing. And for every one of those there are 50 minor bumps or near misses.
Why not let someone just ride their gas powered motorcycle across campus at 20 mph wherever they want? What is the difference - simply that they are electric powered and you stand on them?
The local golf course has more rules about where you can drive the electric powered carts to protect the grass than campus does to protect actual people.
I've got a coworker that's been knocked down twice by students on scooters.
jac4 said:
Regarding dash cams, what brand do you recommend?
Are they easy to self install, or is it better to go to a place like Best Buy?
It's a matter of how neat you want the wiring to look. If you don't mind visible power cords around your windshield or dash, it's easy. If you do care, it may still be easy depending on what kind of car you have. Fortunately all of my vehicles have powered mirrors with compatible adapters I found at dongar.tech so installation took 5 minutes.
If you want a rear camera, that gets very tricky especially if you have an SUV with a liftgate but isn't too bad if you've got a truck or sedan. My wife and I both have SUVs so I took the lazy route and went with an Uber-style dash cam that can record inside the cabin with a view out the back window. My wife's car was rear ended and the other driver claimed my wife was partially at fault. The video was still good enough to show him looking left instead of forward when he rear ended her car.
Regarding brand, I don't have a preference but you get what you pay for. I'm not suggesting that you pay $300 for one but I wouldn't go as low as $50 for one either. Just make sure you get a dash cam with a capacitor instead of a battery to handle the Texas heat. Also get a memory card suitable for a dash cam.
Tim Weaver said:
Its almost as if 80k kids shouldn't be in class all at the same time on the same campus.......
If they want the streets to be safer they should let less people in. We didn't have these problems when there were 40, 50, or even 60 thousand students......
They all aren't on campus at the same time. I live within 500 feet of campus and students are coming and going down the street all day.
We probably didn't have a problem when there was 40,000 or so students as, one, few motorized skateboards and scooters were available and they were expensive. Now you can by a motorized scooter at Walmart in town for $140.
I personally think that the number of students on the main campus should have been capped at about 45,000, Classes with 650 students is asinine as it's not teaching, it's just presenting the information.
metroid_84 said:
Personally, I think the mini-mobility situation could be solved if there were just more buses on and off campus. No one will lug a scooter that they aren't allowed to bring inside the building if they can easily ride a bus to campus. A&M transportation has 50 new buses coming, but apparently all to replace old buses. We need more buses and more drivers. At the moment, the Howdy-1 route runs every 12 minutes during business hours, which is fantastic, but we need more routes running more frequently, especially on days without classes like weekends and holidays (students still need to eat and buy groceries, grad students still need to come to campus to do lab work, etc). Otherwise everything will get even worse as new construction further reduces parking availability on campus.
A lot of the issue is the focus on student housing at northgate. There's really not an effective way to bus those people 100-200 yards from church st to campus. They're going to walk or use things like scooters.
And unfortunately, the pedestrian traffic itself has slowly but consistently shut down bus access to parts of campus.
Reality is, we've hit the point where there's just too many rats in the cage.
I mentioned 20 mph in my post above. That was low. I was going down University today and was passed by two separate scooters traveling on the sidewalks along with pedestrians when I was going 30-33 mph. So, a lot of scooters on campus can go at least 35 mph.
Gap said:
I mentioned 20 mph in my post above. That was low. I was going down University today and was passed by two separate scooters traveling on the sidewalks along with pedestrians when I was going 30-33 mph. So, a lot of scooters on campus can go at least 35 mph.
I was following a skateboard on Glade one morning all the way thru the neighborhood until we crossed Bush onto Bizzell. This kid was doing 25 on a skateboard. No helmet.
Hitting even a small rock in the road is going to send him to the ground.
Those one-wheel things can go fast. At least most of those people were riding jackets and helmets, and sometimes pants and gloves.