San Diego State bans electric scooters but neglects to tell students

In a move to protect public safety, San Diego State University has banned the use of virtually all electric and motorized versions of scooters, skateboards, bikes, roller skates and hoverboards on campus.

The university said that the ban was approved by the University Senate in March, but that the school didn’t publicly announce it until Monday, a week before fall classes are scheduled to begin.

SDSU will allow students to use these kind of dockless devices to commute to and from SDSU. But riders won’t be able to operate them on the main campus on Montezuma Mesa.

“Micro-mobility companies have set up ‘geofencing’ around campus, which will alert riders when they are approaching the ‘no-ride’ campus zones,” SDSU said Monday in a statement. “Once the rider enters the geofence, the device will begin to slow significantly.”

Riders must then park the devices in one of eight designated zones, which have yet to be widely publicized.

Debbie Richeson, the school’s Parking and Transportation Services director, said in a statement, “The new policy was enacted to ensure the safety of our campus community was a top priority.

“However, we recognize that micro-mobility is a favored and accessible form of alternate transportation and we want to support this mode of transportation to and from campus.”

The devices — particularly e-scooters — have been a source of controversy in many cities across the country, including San Diego, where city officials have started to regulate when and where they can be used. Some schools, including San Jose State University, have banned them outright.

Bella Ross, editor of SDSU’s Daily Aztec newspaper, suspected that change was occurring last week when the scooter she was riding slowed as she approached campus.

“I tried to park it, but it wouldn’t let me turn it off,” Ross said. “I didn’t know there was a place to park these. I had to walk it a half-mile off campus, then got charged more [money] for doing that.”

Ross added, “I think some students are going to respond negatively to [the ban] because the scooters are pretty popular. If you have to get from one place to another, they’re convenient. But not everyone will be upset because they don’t want to get run down by one of these things.”