Police are increasingly citing Cal Poly students with electric scooters for using their devices on campus.
The university has a longstanding ban on their use, and the increased enforcement is due to more electric scooters being on campus, according to university spokesperson Keegan Koberl. Students typically get warnings before being cited, Koberl said.
“With electric scooters and other micro-mobility devices such as scooters and skateboards becoming more popular in general this has led to an increased number of violations and complaints,” Koberl said. “This resulted in more common and visible enforcement when officers see them being used on campus.”
Citations for using electric scooters or other prohibited motorized devices are $234 along with additional court fees. However, students who receive a citation can opt to instead attend Cal Poly’s Skateboard/Bicycle Diversion class that costs $35, according to Koberl.
Students who receive a second citation must pay the $234 or contest the citation in court.
Motorized scooters have been banned on Cal Poly’s campus since 2019, according to Cal Poly’s Transportation & Parking Services’ vehicle regulations. Students must receive an exemption from Cal Poly in order to ride an electric scooter on campus.
Electric scooters can still be parked on Cal Poly’s bike racks, but anyone who uses their scooter on campus can receive a citation or be subjected to disciplinary procedures.
Alexxus Villanueva, a sophomore business student, uses an electric scooter, and she has only been stopped once because of her headlights being off. However, she noted some of her friends have been stopped for riding their scooter on campus.
“It affects me a lot because I depend on my scooter to go to the store and I depend on it to go to work because I have a job,” Villanueva said. “If they didn’t allow me to go to campus then it’s going to affect my delay for going to work and just the average day.”
Villanueva also noted her scooter was gifted to her and she thinks the scooter would be a waste of money if she wasn’t able to use it on campus.
Cal Poly Public Safety partnered with the California Office of Traffic Safety to create the Go Safely program in spring 2024. The program aims to educate students on how to get on-and-off campus safely. It says Cal Poly’s hillside topography and busy pathways make it hard for electric scooters and other micro-motorized vehicles to stop quickly when they are going at high speeds. It notes this is a concern for student safety.
Julissa Preciado, an agriculture grad student, heard about Cal Poly Police enforcing their electric scooter policy more at the beginning of the school year but thought most of campus generally ignored the rule.
Preciado hasn’t had any issues being able to drive her scooter on campus yet, but she added she would need to change how she gets to school if campus police started to enforce the rule more.
“I literally just got this scooter not that long ago and it’s a lot nicer than riding a bike around, but I would just switch back to my bike,” Preciado said.
This story was updated to clarify that students typically receive warnings before citations.