OSU Scooter Ban Upsets Students, Local Business Owners

Oklahoma State University is taking a stand against motorized scooters on campus property.

On Monday OSU announced a ban on the recently delivered Lime and Bird motorized scooters, and the decision is having an impact on students as well as the surrounding city.

Students are missing the convenience of the scooters to get around campus, and now Stillwater business owners are experiencing the inconvenience of them piling up outside their stores.

On just about every corner and in between, Birds and Limes line the streets.

“There seems to be a lot of scooters in Stillwater right now!” Stillwater Mayor Will Joyce said.

Joyce says only 200 scooters total are allowed to be in the city, but Bird scooter charger and OSU sophomore Jadan Terrazas, estimates there are about double that amount.

“It’s a great source of income for the students and the residents of Stillwater alike” said Terrazas.  “And then on top of that it has helped, a lot of the kids use them to get to class.”

When the university abruptly announced a scooter ban on campus based on security concerns and permitting issues, Terrazas was skeptical.

“Ten or 20 accounts of improper use compared to literally thousands a day of proper usage isn’t enough to justify just removing them all of a sudden,” Terrazas said.

The scooter companies have since marked OSU a red zone, so they stop automatically before they cross campus lines.

The city of Stillwater is left to struggle with the overflow, and leaders are now working on a permanent code change to address the devices.

“I love the idea, but we need the companies to cooperate with us. We need them to work with us so that we can deal with the legitimate concerns that we as a community have,” Mayor Joyce said.

In the meantime, Terrazas launched a change petition to get the university to rescind their decision. It has gained more than 6,000 signatures in just 24 hours.

“Which is over a quarter of our undergraduate population that have signed on to this petition to bring them back,” said Terrazas. “So the university should bend an ear to that.”

Terrazas is meeting with university leaders on Wednesday. Mayor Joyce hopes the city can finalize its new regulations in the next month