Student mopeds are annoying, unnecessary

U.Va recently issued an email notice banning hoverboards because they present a safety and fire hazard, but what they also need to ban are mopeds. Every student here lives within walking distance from Grounds (a 15-minute walk is usually the maximum anyone here, unless they have the great misfortune of living in, say, the Copely upperclassmen dorms) so anyone who thinks they need a moped to get to class is a lazypants. The irony is that most moped drivers zipping around grounds are Division 1 athletes (!). I understand that getting to practice at U-Hall or John Paul Jones Arena can be a pain to get to via a Northline bus, but to go from class to class?? Stop being lazy.

I’ve almost been hit by a moped before at least three times this past fall! For those unfamiliar, McCormick Rd. is a main street on Grounds that, during school hours, is restricted to authorized University vehicles and buses, and student bikes with a maximum speed limit of about 25 mph (usually, cars don’t go faster than 15-20 mph because of the vehicle gates and flood of students). These mopeds, though, always speed by while going at least 30-35 mph! Crossing McCormick Rd. during normal class changes is hard enough: you have to cut through swarms of students, look both ways for vehicles, buses and bikes because there’s no crosswalk signal, and then scoot across the street through more swarms of students. So, adding speeding mopeds to the mix does NOT help. Given that McCormick Rd. is a main street on Grounds heavily populated by student pedestrians during class changes, I’m used to crossing the street and looking out for larger authorized University vehicles and buses and the occasional bike going a maximum of 20 mph, but NOT a moped speeding through at 35 mph.

This was a bit of a rant, but I’m just trying to get to and from class on time without getting hit by a speeding moped, OK?

The U.Va Rotunda undergoing renovations. I'll be equally bandaged up if I get hit by a speeding moped this semester.