New riding policies

UTRGV has implemented new policies for personal transportation riding devices (PTDs) that will go into effect this semester.

According to the UTRGV Handbook of Operating Procedures, under personal transportation riding devices, section 2a states, “Personal transportation riding devices are prohibited from use on covered walkways, breezeways, and pedestrian bridges on all UTRGV campuses.”

A PTD includes but is not limited to roller skates, scooters, bicycles, skateboards, Segways, hoverboards and unicycles. PTDs are prohibited on the Bronc Trail on the Edinburg campus and the Lozano-Banco Bridge on the Brownsville campus.

This policy applies to faculty, students, visitors, volunteers, contractors or vendors in or on the premises and facilities owned, leased, operated or otherwise controlled by UTRGV. 

Richard Costello, director of Environmental Health, Safety & Risk Management, said there are two reasons for these new policies for the safety of pedestrians and individuals riding PTDs on campus. 

“It’s unfortunate, but we got a number of complaints over the years regarding the failure of the individuals that are operating PTDs to have some level of respect for the pedestrians,” Costello said. “They’re just basically zipping in and out, especially on the covered walkway.”

He said individuals have even retained attorneys and filed for worker’s compensation from accidents and near misses on covered walkways in the past.

“We had a skateboarder that ended in the hospital because they ran into one of the [covered walkway] supports,” Costello said.

He suggests that students find alternate paths instead of the Bronc Trail to get around the Edinburg campus and to navigate around the Lozano-Banco Bridge on a trail south of it.

“There are plans in the making to actually build up the infrastructure to have what we call the cart paths because we have a lot of carts on campus,” Costello said. “So, they’ll be cart paths and they’ll actually better the paths for the bikes and for the carts so they will relieve a significant amount of congestion.”

Alejandro Torres, a biology senior, sees the new policy as a negative thing, especially near or around campus.

“Those people are probably the only ones using [the Bronc Trail], those people that live here or down the street,” Torres said. “Because if they have class on the other side [of campus], they will have to go around the university.”

Another issue that Costello brought up was pedestrians are not paying attention as well.

“A large majority of [pedestrians] are on their cell phones and they have their AirPods and they’re just not paying attention to their surroundings,” he said. “So, what you have is a situation where you have a group full of cyclists … going in and out of the covered walkways, coupled with pedestrians that are not paying attention and it’s just not a good situation.”

Shaik Merkatur Hakim Marjuban, a mechanical engineering graduate student from Bangladesh, thinks a bike is the most suitable way for short transportation. Ever since Marjuban began attending UTRGV last January, he has used his bike for transportation.

“I’ve been riding this bike for, like, one year, so the Bronc Trail, I mainly use is … a shortcut,” he said.

Marjuban said these new policies will make things better for campus traffic.

“The thing that happens is that when [pedestrians] wear headsets, they don’t listen to anything when you are on their backside,” he said. “You need to shout or you need to make some noise and that’s a thing that happens a lot.”

Section 2E deals with scooter-sharing systems, due to the new pilot program launched last December between the City of Edinburg and Blue Duck scooters.

This section states, “personal transportation riding devices owned by a vendor and made available directly by the vendor to individuals, such as through scooter-sharing systems for short-term rentals, are prohibited in or on the property or facilities owned, leased, operated, or otherwise controlled by UTRGV unless the vendor has entered into a contract directly with UTRGV. These devices will be subject to immediate impound and an impound fee if discovered anywhere on University-controlled property.”

Even with the pilot program in Edinburg, these scooters are prohibited on UTRGV grounds with a geo-fence and will be impounded with a $100 fee that will be charged to the company.

“Other campuses, such as UT Austin, have had a significant number of injuries associated with the use of those scooters, and [UTRGV] decided that it was not a good idea,” Costello said. “We may at a later date, but at this point, we decided that it wasn’t a good idea to allow these scooters on campus.”

Torres said he had used them before in Austin and was excited when he first saw them in Edinburg.

“I live nearby, maybe like six [minutes] away,” he said. “If I check the map randomly and see one there, I’ll probably just use it to go nearby.”

Costello said University Police will enforce these new policies.

“Nobody is going to be throwing anyone in jail, it’s just going to be a, ‘Hey, there’s a reminder, see the sign?’” he said.

Section 3A states, “Bicycles attached illegally to structures other than designated bicycle racks may be removed and impounded.”

Students will not be charged a fee if they get their PTD impounded, Costello said.

“The institution is not going to charge students for their personal transportation devices,” he said. “What’s interesting about working for the institution is that they don’t want to burden the students with any of these types of administrative cost. … It’s more of a warning.”

According to Costello, this is not meant to be a confrontational policy, but identifying an issue and having some type of administrative control to address it.

Para la versión en español de este artículo, oprima aquí.