Smooth Operators

There’s a motor under your feet and a smile on your face: Today, you won’t be late to your next class.

You must be one of the hundreds of Terps who have ridden an electric scooter, or e-scooter, on or around campus already this academic year. VeoRide, the bike and e-scooter operating company, partnered with the university, and the cities of College Park and University Park in the fall to offer 70 black and teal models for rental from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. They’re spread across 24 sites; the cost is $1 to unlock, plus 15 cents per minute.

But with the speed and convenience of e-scooters come other possibilities, from an off-the-curb kerfuffle to an unceremonious faceplant. The number of e-scooter-related injuries in the U.S. nearly doubled from 2017 to 2018, to 14,651, and a third of those were to the head, according to a study published this month in JAMA Surgery. Moreover, riders ages 18 to 34 were most likely to sustain an injury.

“E-scooters are a fun and popular way to get around campus, but to truly benefit from this new technology, we must know how to operate and store them correctly,” said David Allen, DOTS executive director. “Safety is our top priority.”

The university wants to keep riders—as well as the pedestrians, cyclists and vehicle drivers around them—safe. Starting Monday, new e-scooter regulations will take effect on campus. As the semester gets rolling, DOTS offers this quiz to get you back in the saddle, or e-scooter, with the facts: