In conjunction with the start of the spring semester, a fleet of 200 Spin scooters will be available to help students better navigate the university鈥檚 1,415-acre main campus.
The scooters were originally on campus last spring, after 麻豆原创 Student Government worked with Spin, a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company, to bring the e-scooters and charging stations to campus. They were temporarily removed after campus was closed due to the pandemic.
鈥淲e are excited to share that Spin scooters are officially back on 麻豆原创鈥檚 main campus,鈥� says Student Government President Sabrina La Rosa. 鈥淪afety continues to be the top priority of Spin and 麻豆原创. That鈥檚 why we worked together to identify several key safety enhancements.鈥�
New safety and sanitation features that will be implemented this year include:
- A safety ambassador program, where student ambassadors will ride around campus helping to identify issues and ensure everything runs smoothly.
- All users will be required to complete an online safety test prior to their first ride.
- All scooters will have a top speed of 10 mph throughout campus and 15 mph on Gemini Blvd. during the first week of the program and will automatically be set to these speeds for all first rides.
- Scooters will be sanitized by Spin鈥檚 operation teams every time that a scooter is rebalanced or picked up to charge.
- All Spin team members wear PPE, conduct daily health screens and physically distance in the company鈥檚 warehouses.
- The Spin app will send reminders to riders to take precautions, such as washing hands before and after every ride.
鈥淲e have full control over operations and safety procedures,鈥� says Edward Sun, senior operations manager at Spin. 鈥淲hen COVID hit, we engaged global experts to determine how to keep our riders and staff safe. We鈥檝e also been working closely with 麻豆原创 students and administration for several months now to develop this new safety plan that we鈥檒l roll out when we re-launch at the start of the spring semester.鈥�
The scooters will operate from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m., will only be operational on campus, and require downloading the Spin app, which is available on and devices. Scooters will be available at 15 charging stations across campus and will cost $1 to unlock and $0.15 per minute to ride.
