Scooter-share pilot ends five days after beginning

Five days after arriving on campus, the electric assisted scooters from California-based Spin are no longer allowed at Utah State University.

According to Margaret McCarthy, Aggie Blue Bikes program coordinator and the liaison between Spin and Utah State, the decision was made by USU’s Risk Management office and USU police. They cite university policy 509.2.2 which prohibits motorcycles and motorized scooters from operating on university walkways. This was confirmed in an email from Eric Olsen, associate vice president for student affairs.

“I think when this policy was written, it probably meant mopeds and Vespas, what you would normally think of as a motorized scooter, but did not specify push scooters with electric assist, which is what Spin scooters are,” McCarthy said.

The university has no written policy against other electric vehicles such as hoverboards, e-bikes, or self-propelled skateboards, but did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

“These issues were brought to our attention today, and because we are always sensitive to the concerns of our university and city partners, we took immediate action to end the scooter pilot,” stated Ted Sweeney, Spin’s campus partnership lead, in a press release.

According to Tim Vitale, executive director of the public relations and marketing office, his office was not aware the scooter pilot was happening, nor that it was cancelled prematurely.

After the bikes arrived on campus McCarthy and Alexi Lamm, who works in USU’s sustainability office, gave two presentations to various administrators. “A lot of higher-up people were in this meeting; perhaps risk management wasn’t there, which could be part of the issue,” McCarthy said. 

McCarthy said multiple administrators, vice presidents, and campus leaders were in the meeting, and none of them raised issue with the scooter-share program.

“Spin works really hard to make sure they operate where they have permission,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy reinforced the strong partnership between Spin and USU, and said they are still operating the popular Spin bike-share pilot program that began in March. She is hopeful that the university will reach an agreement with Spin, or at least re-evaluate the walkway policy.

“There’s a plethora of electric and motor assisted vehicles moving around this campus every single day on walkways,” McCarthy said. “The university policies have not caught up to all the modes of transport that there are today.”

While the university policies don’t currently allow the scooter-share program to continue, McCarthy reiterated that the program was still an exciting way to test a new product.

“I still am really excited that we did launch this in the first place. It got people really excited, and I’m hopeful that there will be more electric assisted vehicles on campus,” she said. “I think [electric assist vehicles] help people who may be too intimidated, not feel that they are a bike person, or are disabled and need help getting around campus.”

McCarthy said that the risk management office did not directly say whether or not the scooters posed a safety risk, but only cited the university policy.

“I’m frustrated,” she said. “I wish that this university had a more cohesive active transportation management team, and I wish there was the infrastructure to keep all users of all vehicles safe, whether they are in the road or in the walkways.”

—carter.moore@aggiemail.usu.edu
@carterthegrreat