Lime Scooters Turn Sour
By Emily Robles | Published by December 10, 2019
Lime Scooters may be all over campus — just don’t ride them.
This semester, Lime Scooters cruised to Kean University, brought to us by Lime Micro mobility, a company that issues e-scooters and bikes for people to rent in cities and other universities.
To use the Lime Scooters, students must use their official app to locate scooters via GPS and each scooter costs $1 to unlock and 20 cents per minute to ride. According to the Kean University press release, “Riders must park scooters in designated bike rack areas on campus, and they may not ride on campus walkways, including Cougar Walk, or on the grounds.”
The university stated that these strict rules are due to safety reasons.
Despite the company’s objective to provide “smart mobility for the modern world,” according to the Lime website, some Kean students have said that the scooters are a confusing addition to campus.
“Lime Scooters can be unlocked for $1 with an additional charge of 20 cents per minute.” Photo by Emily Robles
The scooters were officially brought to campus on Nov. 1 as well as being a part of a six month trial period in the city of Elizabeth. Two weeks after the campus introduction, an email sent by Kean University’s Public Safety and Police stated that the use of e-scooters on campus grounds was prohibited and students may be fined $50 if they are caught riding them. Some students said they didn’t receive the email and weren’t aware of this, but due to recent events, the scooters will no longer be on campus at all.
On Nov. 21, it was reported that a 16-year-old boy in Elizabeth was riding a lime scooter when he got struck by a tow truck at around 8 p.m. on Elizabeth Ave, according to the article on nj.com. The teen boy died of his injuries from the incident.
In an interview with the New York Times, Mayor Chris Bollwage said that The City Council will discuss possible changes to the lime scooter program to make it safer or even possible termination of the program. The meeting was held on Nov. 26 and it was decided the city of Elizabeth will no longer be running their Lime scooter program.
Before the event of the boy dying, students had said that the public safety email confused them and questioned if the scooters were beneficial to the campus.
“I’m not a fan of the scooters,” said Communications major Jack Ciarrocca. “All of a sudden they’re everywhere and they are so dangerous.”
“I think it’s a cool idea, but at the same time makes no sense,” said John Montanez, a senior and a Communications major. “Everything on this campus is walkable, so it makes no sense to have them.”
According to an article on abc7ny.com, the Lime company has 48 hours to remove their scooters from the city Elizabeth, which also includes the scooters on Kean University’s campus. Students are reminded that if they choose to ride their own personal e-scooter, to not ride them on campus grounds and be aware of traffic laws.
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