Riders of electric bikes, scooters and boards on the University of Texas at Austin\u2019s campus will have to dismount and walk in a large portion of central campus, including the Speedway Mall, starting Aug. 24.<\/p>\n
The university is designating the area between San Jacinto Boulevard and Guadalupe Street and 21st Street to 24th Street as a \u201cpedestrian friendly zone,\u201d the university announced Monday. The changes start the first day of the fall semester.<\/p>\n
The announcement comes after signs went up on campus last week and after the university quietly posted new mobility regulations online<\/a>, including a \u201cdismount zone map.\u201d The web page was then taken down. The original post did not make clear if the dismount areas included non-motorized vehicles. Cycling advocates expressed concerns about the plan’s impact before the university clarified that the ban would not impact manual bicycles and scooters. <\/p>\n The new “pedestrian friendly zone” will also have a 5 mph speed limit for personal electric vehicles. Other sections of campus have speed limits of 15 mph.<\/p>\n Eduardo Diaz, a student at UT, was one of the people concerned about a blanket ban for all scooters, bikes and boards on Speedway. <\/p>\n “I still think that this confusion would have been avoided significantly if we had gotten some input before this went into place,\u201d Diaz said. “I’m glad that this was clarified or that it was changed.”<\/p>\n He said he understands the decision more after the clarification, but that, for him, ideally the ban would only be in effect in between classes. <\/p>\n “Speedway is basically the only protected car-free route that you can take from Central Austin, that’s not really far out of the way,\u201d Diaz said. “So if you’re people who are coming up from Hyde Park, from all those areas, [you] probably would take Speedway.<\/p>\n Riders will also have to leave the vehicles in designated parking areas<\/a> around campus. However, a person will not be fined for riding their electric vehicles in the banned zone. <\/p>\n