Campus Police say "Don’t buy scooters!"

Tue, Jul 10, 2007

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(photo for illustrative purposes only. I’m sure these scooter cops are a fine pair of peace keepers)


Whoa there pilgrim! Do I believe my eyes? The campus cops at UF are telling students to not buy scooters for campus!? Christina “Bust-a-move” Briggs is blowing the whistle on these foos in her letter to the editor over at the highly esteemed, nationally recognized publication, “The Alligator”. The story follows:

Letter to the Editor
Save the Scooters By CHRISTINA BRIGGS UF Alumna

I am a recent graduate from UF and currently work at a local motor scooter store. Recently, we had customers come in and state that the University Police Department specially told them during Preview not to buy scooters for campus. I even called another local scooter store and they mentioned their customers said the same thing.

Their reasons given were scooters are not safe, there is not scooter parking close to classes, and in a few years, scooters will not be allowed on campus.

Transportation and Parking Services has added more scooter parking over the years to adapt to the demands of the increased scooter usage. Additionally, the scooter and motorcycle parking decal price is the only one not raised for the 2007-08 school year. I called and confirmed scooters are here to stay.

Scooter parking is abundant and the closest parking option to many main buildings. Close to six scooters can fit in one regular car parking spot. As far as scooter safety, other motor vehicle drivers cause more accidents than the drivers of scooters. Most repairs we see are from scooters being stolen or knocked over, not from collisions.

UPD should not be making negative statements against the scooter industry. They should enforce the new “Under 21″ helmet law, requiring all drivers under 21 to wear a helmet and ride with a tag that states they are underage. I see students riding around campus daily with that tag and no helmet. I hope UPD understands the strain they put on local scooter shops. Scooters are a smart mode of transportation for students from a practical, environmental and economical standpoint.

You go girl! Don’t let the man get away with trying to ban the scooter! Fight the power!

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5 Responses to “Campus Police say "Don’t buy scooters!"”

  1. Orin Says:
    10. July 2007 at 11:13 pm

    Not too long ago, I was answering a survey in which one of the questions was, “do you trust the police?” Years ago, I used to say yes, but these days, there seem to be so many cops who have their own take on what the laws are, or are not. I took a parking ticket to court a couple of years ago, and the magistrate said, “most of those people (parking enforcement officers) aren’t familiar with the parking ordnances.” And he didn’t seem to think that was a problem. What’s more disturbing to me is how most of our fellow citizens don’t seem concerned about this…

    __Orin
    Scootin’ Old Skool

    Reply

  2. Elec Says:
    11. July 2007 at 1:47 am

    True this was a big blunder, they can’t make their own law. Perhaps they were responding to all the noise gas scooters make ?
    FalconEV

    Reply

  3. Anonymous Says:
    11. July 2007 at 11:37 am

    Campus police are nothing more than glorified Wal-Mart security officers. There just mad all the time because they’re too ignorant and old to be REAL police officers. We had problems with them all the time at my college in the early 90′s. Good for Christine for calling them out!!

    Reply

  4. Dregan Says:
    11. July 2007 at 9:06 pm

    Anonymous, you don’t realize that most larger campuses today (where you’ll find the most scooters) have PD departments that are fully-sworn LEO’s – complete with arrest powers.

    Heck, the ones at UofAkron where I went applied and were approved for a federal grant to buy surplus military hardware – ie: M-16′s, kevlar, all the ninja toys.

    Bottom line though, if the scoots are registered (if necessary in that state, pretty much everything needs to be here) then the PD has no more authority to prohibit them than a Ford Focus or a Honda Civic. If you’ve paid for your registration (or are otherwise exempted, for some staaes under 50cc) then you have earned you right to all streets and public parking lots. Given that most scools also recieve federal, state and local funding, and that they have a SCOOTER and motorcycle parking pass, this only proves and reinforces the point.

    The only exception would be the little put-put stand-up scoots I’ve seen, basically Razor scooters with miniature engines, and even then, I would want to see the campus rulebook to verify that.

    Reply

  5. Anonymous Says:
    12. July 2007 at 11:39 am

    YOUR school may be like that but I work at a college with 35000+ students and we just have security guards. No arresting or detaining rights and no weapons unless you count their radio. There is city police on campus though… so I guess I do realize….

    Reply

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