The University of Maryland is enacting new measures to prevent students from bringing electric micromobility vehicles inside campus buildings, according to a Tuesday campuswide email.
This university will impound vehicles, issue citations and ask students to report when they see vehicles indoors, the email from university vice president Carlo Colella, transportation services executive director David Allen and university fire marshal Alan Sactor said.
The owners of vehicles found indoors will be referred to this university’s student conduct office and receive a fine of up to $70.
This announcement comes less than a month after two electric micromobility vehicles caught fire in the same week in campus buildings. Both fires could have had more serious consequences if not for “fortunate timing,” this university’s fire marshal determined after investigating the incidents.
“Despite repeated reminders and warnings, some members of the community continue to bring their devices indoors,” the email read. “The university must take further action to mitigate this hazard.”
[2 micromobility vehicles catch on fire at UMD]
Electric micromobility vehicles are not allowed inside campus buildings because the lithium-ion batteries used in these vehicles can “catch fire without warning, producing intense, projectile-emitting fires that are difficult to extinguish,” according to the Tuesday email.
University employees will impound vehicles found in hallways, lounges, bike rooms and other public areas in dorms. Students were allowed to store their electric scooters in dorm bike rooms before Tuesday’s announcement.
University employees will not enter residents’ rooms to impound scooters, this university confirmed to The Diamondback. But vehicles found during health and safety inspections over campus breaks will be impounded.
This is the first time this university has implemented citations and impounding to manage micromobility vehicles indoors.
During the fall semester, freshman civil engineering major Alex Campbell used a bike to get around campus, but switched to an electric scooter after an injury made biking more difficult. He said this university’s campus size and a scarcity of outdoor outlets make it hard to be a student with an electric micromobility device.
[UMD students say commuter buses are overcrowded, unsafe]
Campbell said he has been charging his scooter in his dorm’s bike room all semester.
“That’s what everyone did, but now that’s not allowed,” Campbell said.
Now, he has to compete for the four outdoor outlets outside his building, Ellicott Hall.
This university’s Residence Hall Association and Student Government Association are exploring ways to add more outdoor charging options.
Both organizations are eager to address this issue after the fires earlier in the month, according to Syed Azan Ali, a representative for South Campus Commons in both the SGA and RHA.
Ali, a junior government politics major, said he is glad the university did not ban electric micromobility vehicles entirely.
“There’s been a few people who have raised concerns in the past that something could happen, but since something has actually happened, people are more concerned,” Ali said.
Campbell dislikes the idea of having students report other students’ vehicles found inside, he said.
“It’s ridiculous and it doesn’t foster any sense of community here on campus,” Campbell said.
