University of Maryland Vice President Carlo Colella and a team of student and staff representatives launched an educational campaign aimed at mitigating a rise in unsafe riding practices by micromobility vehicles, Colella shared in a campuswide email Monday.
Micromobility vehicles are a range of lightweight, low-speed vehicles. There has been a significant rise in unsafe riding practices and reports of accidents, according to Colella.
“Something’s really changed here and we’re going to have to take this to a new level and do so with some immediacy, which is why we put together this tiger team,” Colella told The Diamondback in December.
[Here’s how traffic patterns are changing on UMD’s campus]
The Safety Starts with You campaign will provide safety guidelines to pedestrians, micromobility riders and motorists.
A variety of new signage will be implemented in the coming weeks. Nearly 400 shared lane markings will be painted on the campus roads. New road signs will remind motorists to share the road with micromobility vehicles, and pavement markings and signs near sidewalks will remind micrommobility operators to dismount and walk.
The team, which began meeting in October, will conclude work shortly after these plans are implemented.
