This post was updated Dec. 3 at 9:51 p.m.
UCPD stopped more than 100 people this fall for speeding on scooters or riding them dangerously.
Unsafe riding practices have been a significant issue for UCPD in the past year, said Jeffrey Chobanian, the captain of UCPD’s operations bureau. Out of the 140 stops, 78 received a citation, leading to a nearly 56% citation rate for scooter traffic stops.
UCPD received hundreds of safety concerns from community members about scooter riders’ unsafe use of outdoor spaces, Chobanian added.
“We’ve had now many injuries because of improper driving on scooters,” he said.
UCPD stops scooter riders who fail to follow general traffic safety procedures, such as continuing to ride in dismount zones, Chobanian said, which include Bruin Plaza, Bruin Walk and the Parking Structure 8 corridor. He added that UCPD’s goal is to prevent injuries from scooter accidents.
“We did a huge education piece – we have flyers out, we passed out things on Bruin Walk,” Chobanian said. “We have the things on the bus stops – safe scooter campaigns at the bus stops – but we weren’t getting the cooperation we were hoping for.”
Third-year international development studies student Michael Flores said UCPD stopped him and his friends earlier this quarter as they rode scooters in front of De Neve, and the group received a verbal warning.
Faris Eltaki, a second-year linguistics and computer science student, said he rides a scooter to campus to save time. Eltaki added that he recently saw UCPD stopping other scooter riders, which has made him reconsider his mode of transportation.
“I fell into that stereotype of not following road laws before,” Eltaki said. “I straightened up, you could say, after that.”
First-year business economics student Christian Labonte said he sometimes gets nervous when people ride scooters around him, adding that he feels unsafe when riders speed up without paying attention to their surroundings. First-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student Anna Kanapka said she is wary of the scooters after her friend was hit by one last week.
Labonte added that he believes signs and flyers have not been as effective as police presence in mitigating the extreme riding behaviors.
“If there’s no police around that day, … I’ll see people just ripping like they don’t care,” Labonte said.
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