You’d think a progressive university like UNC-Chapel Hill would be a haven for tree-hugging, global warming-believing environmentalists and their scooters.
Nope. Turns out UNC-Chapel Hill likes to regulate behavior more than it likes scooters. From the Independent Weekly:
Last May, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill board of trustees quietly approved an amendment to a traffic ordinance that would require those riding mopeds and scooters on campus to purchase a parking permit and to put their vehciles in designated spaces.
The decision enraged scooter riders, and the outcry has prompted the board of trustees to possibly reconsider the issue next month.
The 45-page ordinance regulates traffic and parking on campus. The portion that is attracting attention expands a category of vehicles that must be registered from “motoped/ motorbike” to “motorized two-wheeled vehicles.” Currently, any moped or scooter with an engine larger than 50 cubic centimeters must be registered with UNC, but the new language includes all mopeds and scooters.
The N.C. Department of Motor Vehicles requires only those with larger engines to be registered with the state.
The ordinance, which would become effective Aug. 15, also explicitly puts scooters in the same category as motorcycles. It would require a permit and parking space for scooters on campus and prohibit driving scooters on sidewalks.
Scooter riders are so mad that they’ve started an online petition “Organizing UNC Students, Faculty and Staff Against Ill-Considered Scooter Regulations.”
