Cyclists and skateboarders on the campus have to follow a certain set of rules that are stated in Texas state law and enforced by the campus police. Both modes of transportation are available to students on campus and have their own advantages and drawbacks.
“We enforce Texas state law,” Dan Williams, police chief, said. “People on skateboards are considered pedestrians. Here at the university we have carried that a little step further in specifically defining what a skateboarder is, and what a rollerblader is.”
Skateboards have become an easy means of on campus transportation as well as not having to find a place for a bike or a car makes the more desirable to students. Skateboards here are only allowed to be used to get from point a to point b, and not used for tricks, jumping curbs and jumping up and down steps. They are required to stay on the sidewalk when it is provided and against traffic when it is not. The use of skateboards on campus is a relatively new form of transportation in getting from one class to the next.
“When I came here five years ago you could not ride a skateboard on campus,” Williams said. “About three years ago a group of students wrote up a draft that went up through the Student Government Association, through Administrative Council and to the Board of Regents and got the policies changed to where they could.”
From the returning popularity of skateboards, the regulations have been modified and continue to be modified as the campus finds new problems with allowing them. Skateboarders do not always follow the laws set in place that define them as pedestrians.
“It was fine for a while but it really seems like in the last year and a half we’re seeing more students who want to ride them out in the middle of the roadway,” Williams said. “If we continue to see that, then I suspect we as a university would take some measures to come up with some more specific regulations.”
Cyclists on the other hand have to obey the laws of traffic just as vehicles do. They have to keep to the curb and ride with traffic while only having two abreast. The campus police will not pull a cyclist over as long as he or she is using common sense and being safe.
“I don’t see that many cyclists breaking the law,” Williams said. “We don’t have a ton of students that ride bikes all over. They ride them on occasion, but not all day every day. Right now I don’t see a big need to push that issue and I don’t see a big problem with the bikes at all.”
Even though most cyclists follow the rules around campus, students said using them are not always easy. Some universities are awarded by the Bicycle Friendly University program for having bikeable campuses that make using a bike much more easily.
“When it comes to going to places in the mornings, especially during classes, it’s hard,” Diego Gomez mechanical engineering freshmen said, “There’s a lot of people on the sidewalks and there’s a lot of cars so there’s not really any locations to ride your bike and to be able to get to and from places.”
