November 16, 2018

Purdue police release results of e-scooter rules enforcement campaign

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University police are releasing numbers from a two-week enforcement campaign to ensure e-scooter and bicycle riders are following the rules of the road. The campaign, conducted from Oct. 29-Nov. 12, yielded 265 contacts between officers and riders, but no tickets handed out.

PUPD added extra patrol officers to look for moving violations at intersections with automatic signals and stop signs. They focused on the areas along Martin Jischke Drive and University and Russell streets between Stadium Avenue and State Street, and saw the highest number of contacts between 11 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Due to inclement weather, elections and call volume, patrols were not conducted on four of the days.

Officers estimate that only one-third of all contacts with riders involved e-scooters, with the majority involving bike riders who were not following the rules of the road.

“We are pleased that no violations were considered severe enough to warrant a citation,” said Purdue Police Chief John Cox. “The perception among officers who participated is that the instances that required intervention dropped steadily over the two-week period.”

Cox credits the change in behavior to the high visibility of the officers involved and the aggressive media coverage of this effort. 

 “The areas around campus are very congested, and we’re just asking people to be smart and be safe,” Cox said. “We’ve yet to have a traffic accident involving a motor vehicle and a scooter, and we’d like to keep it that way.”

Riders of scooters and bicycles should operate as if they were driving a car and follow basic traffic regulations. For more information, university policy for e-scooter use can be found here.

Writer: Tim Doty, 765-494-2080, doty2@purdue.edu  

Source: John Cox, 765-494-8221, jkcox@purdue.edu

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