By Carson Vercoe | Sports Writer
As a freshman last year, walking to class was one of my favorite activities of the day. I would leave my dorm, throw my AirPods in and walk around Baylor’s beautiful campus. It became such a routine that I actually got eager to go to class.
But one thing always kept throwing off my walks. It wasn’t slow walkers or bad weather, but it was something unexpected that would zoom right past you if you weren’t paying attention. As a freshman, they told me to worry about grades and making friends, but they forgot to mention one thing: watch out for e-scooters on the sidewalks.
As I am sure many of you know, Baylor’s campus is filled with e-scooters. While I understand the usefulness of an e-scooter, I can’t help but worry about students safety on sidewalks and about students riding these e-scooters.
Increased e-scooter use has led to more accidents across college campuses; crowded sidewalks, high-speed riding and a frequent lack of helmets have become issues in many places.
Baylor seems to have noticed this trend, as it has set rules for e-scooters. Rules like low speed on campus, yield way to pedestrians or on any sidewalk where there is an adjacent, parallel roadway.
While setting rules for outdoor use, Baylor has also banned them from inside buildings. E-scooters aren’t allowed to charge inside a building, let alone be ridden in one.
But many students, like myself, see how these rules aren’t often followed. I don’t think this problem is on the e-scooters, Baylor, or even the students; it’s more of a culture problem.
It’s no shock that college students are always distracted. Trying to be on time to class, looking at our phones, having headphones in, getting things done on time, there’s so much stress going on in our lives that we forget to pay attention to what’s going on around us.
This goes for everyone involved.
A student on a scooter may fly past a group of students without even realizing it, just as a group of students might have their headphones in and not realize a scooter is right behind them.
Neither person means any harm, but this is the problem we get when we don’t pay attention to what is happening around us.
My solution may not be banning e-scooters, but it’s more a call for people to be more aware of what they’re doing. If you’re riding an e-scooter, slow down and watch out for that pedestrian about to cross. If you’re walking, make sure you’re not blocking the sidewalk when these scooters are trying to go past.
College is already stressful, and we shouldn’t need more just to walk around campus, so when you’re walking or zooming around campus, remember to look around you.
