As you walk through Harvard Yard, head down and exhausted from the mental exertion of a two-hour lecture, you’re suddenly startled by a student zipping past, just barely missing you. Taking a glance up, you find a stream of two-wheeled motor vehicles zooming by. Why are scooters suddenly everywhere around campus?
Students depend on their scooters to navigate their way through Harvard’s expansive campus. After being introduced to the long walks to the athletic campus and to the new Science and Engineering Complex in Allston, many athletes and other students have bought scooters. These hot commodities have proven to be time efficient, compact, a source of amusement, and overall, a very good investment. The increased risk of contracting COVID-19 while riding the shuttles and the taxing process of storing a bike has led scooters to become the preferred mode of transportation on campus.
Scooters are now a symbol of status. According to Kai Mackey ’25, the prevalence of scooters among athletes has “created a compounding effect where more people want to have them.” Sterling Scott ’25, a freshman on the football team, says there is “a certain swag that comes with having a scooter.”
Scooters are now a symbol of status.
As scooters have started to dominate campus, Harvard has found ways to accommodate these scooter-loving students. Kelly Miller, a graduate student at the School of Engineering and Applied Science, developed scooter repair workshops at Lowell House’s makerspace, which is equipped with 3D printers, building supplies, and hand tools. “The scooter workshops are designed to introduce students to the makerspace and teach students how to do minor repairs on their own,” says Miller. “I chose to expand the workshop from bikes to scooters when I realized most people were no longer riding bikes anymore—they were actually riding scooters.”
While members of the Harvard community have sought to integrate scooters into everyday campus life, students have conflicting views on whether more could be done to support scooter usage. “Harvard is very accommodating. The area in the back of Annenberg where you can park your scooters has been very helpful,” comments Mackey.
Scott, on the other hand, believes Harvard is entirely supportive of students using scooters. “Harvard provides bike racks, but no scooter racks,” he said. The University’s policy toward scooters is also vague. According to the Transportation and Parking Guide on the Harvard website, motorized scooters must be registered with a permit and comply with designated parking areas. However, this only pertains to motorized vehicles, leaving many students with an ambiguous understanding of the rules for non-motorized scooters.
While members of the Harvard community have sought to integrate scooters into everyday campus life, students have conflicting views on whether more could be done to support scooter usage.
The proliferation of scooters across campus also poses safety concerns. “People [are] leaving them everywhere and tripping on them,” says Miller. “It’s an eyesore and a lhazard.” She believes the University should regulate students’ use of scooters and encourage them to wear helmets. “Harvard needs to figure out exactly what it wants the policy to be with respect to scooters,” she says.
What started as an innovative way to get to class or practice on time has become an increasingly integral part of the campus experience. Many colleges and universities across the country have partnered with E-scooter companies to simplify students’ experiences getting across campus, such as Scoot Safe at Emory University; Spin at Duke, Texas State, and Virginia Tech; and Lime scooters at UCLA, among other universities. Seeing that many campuses across the country are enacting electric scooter programs, will Harvard follow their lead?
Ariel Beck ’25 (arielbeck@college.harvard.edu) desperately wants a scooter of her own.
Graphics by Isa Gooijer ’23