By JOSEPHINE JOHNSON
PHOTO CREDIT Giuseppe LoPiccolo
Crime involving electric scooters is increasing on the University of Maryland campus and along Route 1, police said.
“We do stop a lot of scooters,” Maj. James Keleti of Hyattsville Division 1, told College Park City Councilmembers at an Oct. 15 meeting.
Those stops, at least on campus, have involved failure to stop at a stop sign, riding on the sidewalk, riding in the road with headphones over both ears and failure to obey lane directions.
Plus, University of Maryland (UMD) Police Chief David Mitchell noted at the meeting, “We have charged people for intoxication on a scooter. We will continue to do that.”
And of 269 reported thefts on campus this year, at least 70 were of e-scooters, according to Lt. Rosanne Hoaas of the University of Maryland Police Department (UMPD).
Deputy Chief Stephen Boehm of the Metro Transit Police said the most frequent crimes at the College Park station are auto, bicycle and scooter thefts, noting that motorized scooters are considered by Metro Transit Police as autos.
“It is a challenge, to say the least, for all [area police agencies], specifically on campus,” Mitchell said at the meeting.
But offenders riding scooters are hard to pull over, police officers said at the October meeting.
The Prince George’s County Police Department does not chase speeding scooters, which ride at average speeds of 15 mph to 17 mph, although some models can go as fast as 25 mph, because of safety concerns, Keleti said.
“If they decide not to pull over, we have to terminate that vehicle stop,” Keleti said at the meeting. “Our general orders prohibit [chasing scooters in cars].”
“If they’re on the roadway we can’t chase them,” agreed Maryland-National Capital Park Police Assistant Chief Yasmin Brown. “But on the trails, we’re trying to utilize our officers on those same types of vehicles that may be able to deter.”
Mitchell expressed hope that UMPD will be able to put more officers on bicycles to patrol the campus.
“I have to weigh out, you know, is it worth me going into opposing traffic to try to stop that e-scooter, who’s probably now already half a mile down the road?” Hoaas said. “But it does make it easier if you’re on a bicycle, as a bicycle officer.”
Hoaas said some scooter drivers don’t realize they have to follow the same traffic rules as cars.
“The reality is, oftentimes, they don’t realize that they need to be in the road and that they need to follow the rules of the road, like in a car, truck or SUV,” Hoaas said.
Maryland legally classifies low-speed e-scooters and e-bikes as bicycles, which also must obey local traffic laws when on the road, even though a license is not required.
The University of Maryland lowered the campus speed limit to 15 mph at the start of the fall semester, and UMPD will continue with a program in which officers once a month target scooter drivers who break traffic rules.
Riders receiving citations on campus can expect a fine. For example, failure to stop at a stop sign can result in a $90 fine, according to Hoaas.
Anh Le, a UMD senior, had been riding an electric scooter to class along Route 1 since 2020 but stopped after receiving her first citation, a parking fine for $35, last academic year. She had locked her scooter to a hand rail instead of to a bike rack or in a designated scooter lot.
“UMD has strengthened the rules for using electronic vehicles,” she said. Le cited a lack of storage space and charging ports on campus and along Route 1 as other reasons she stopped riding her electric scooter in College Park.
Le has owned two electric scooters since her freshman year. Her first one was stolen from campus and never recovered.
