BILL#: SEN-4-19

 

TITLE: A Bill to get E-scooters on campus

 

SPONSOR: Carter Oakley, Central Area (coakle10@utk.edu)

 

Cosponsor(s): Joe Hall, Haslam College of Business (jhall105@vols.utk.edu)

 

DATE: 29 January 2019

 

Whereas, All freshman are required to live in on-campus housing.

 

Whereas, Many freshman dorms (Carricks, Reese, Morrill, Orange, White, and the new development past that) are on the west side of campus, on the opposite side of most academic buildings.

 

Whereas, Many academic buildings where classes are held can be 15-20 minutes away by foot.

 

Whereas, Public transportation exists but can be hard to get to accommodate student’s exact schedules and destinations.

 

Whereas, The long walk to class from west campus residence halls has been described as inconvenient and cumbersome, especially when it is hot, or raining.

 

Whereas, Other modes of transportation include bikes, skateboards, or electric skateboards, but those can be expensive and difficult to store.

 

Whereas, Electric scooters are easy to use, cheap and an effective way to get to class.

 

Whereas, Bird electric scooters are free for the school and have many policies in place to keep people safe and not harm the community.

 

Whereas, Bird offers jobs for many students collecting and charging scooters that does more than pay for a student to use that scooter during the day.

 

Whereas, Birds don’t suck up electricity, they cost between 15-40 cents to charge overnight depending on its battery percentage, a minimal cost that really is not much different from other devices like computers and iPads.

 

Whereas, Birds have had problems on campuses but they continue to roll out new measures and protocols such as geo regulated speed zones, free helmets for riders, and submitting pictures of parked scooters after riding.

 

Be it hereby resolved, that administration is advised to allow Bird to operate on campus.