As the weather brightens up moving into spring, hasty walks with chattering teeth are turning to casual strolls with sunshine pouring onto campus. Nothing ruins an afternoon stroll like someone whizzing past on a scooter, skateboard or bicycle.
In a statement made by Mississippi State University, the university faculty recognized that more and more wheeled means of transportation are making an appearance on campus. Their statement focused on the presence of bicycles, but the rules generally apply to scooters and skateboards as well. With this increase, there are two categories of discussion with the issue: intentions vs. results.
It is important to look at the intentions of the “wild wheelers” first. Why do they prefer riding to walking? Mana Medical Associates published an article about the advantages of walking and biking to school. This article speaks of walking and biking simultaneously, asserting that they are equally effective. The main argument in favor of using another form of transportation over walking to class that I have heard from fellow students is riding a bike, scooter or skateboard to class is much faster.
While this may be true for the intense distance from one side of campus to another, most of the daily class buildings are not a far walk from one another. Since the distances are not very long, the advantages of increased speed or heart rate with bicycling over walking are not necessarily relevant, seeing as there is not as much room to “pick up speed.”
Other than the potential intentions of students to be able to arrive at their destination fractionally faster, it seems some students take this action just to look cool. From peers I have talked to, as well as my personal opinion, zooming past someone on a skateboard, scooter or bicycle draws more attention than the traditional walking to class, thus being slightly more embarrassing than cool.
According to Austin Carmody from Outscholar, college students, on average, walk over twice as many steps as adults. This leads into the results of riding rather than walking.
For starters, I have always been curious as to where the scooters and skateboards go while their proud rider is in class. With bicycles, they have a temporary home being chained to the bike racks outside of campus buildings while their faithful rider is in a class, at lunch or in a meeting.
The first time I saw someone carrying a skateboard into class, they leaned it up against the edge of their desk. No harm here, one would think, unless you have been in the situation yourself. The aisles between desks in most campus buildings are wide enough only for a human being to fit through, but not with skateboard wheels sticking out into the middle of the row.
In conclusion, while the intention of riding rather than walking is to get to class faster, the result is not getting to class much faster, as well as inconveniencing the students around you.
When it comes to on-campus walking, if you are able, get to campus a couple of minutes early and enjoy the walk to class. Pop in an earphone with your favorite music or podcast and stroll through MSU’s rural campus on your own feet. All in all, walking to class is more respectful to your fellow student. Maybe I am just old fashioned, but the transportation I was born with, my feet, is the one I prefer to use.