What is 'Micromobility,' and How Can Campuses Get It Right?
Op-ed
Originally published in University Business, March 19, 2026
https://universitybusiness.com/what-is-micromobility-and-how-can-campuses-get-it-right/
Walk across almost any campus on a weekday during class changes and you can feel how quickly student travel has changed. E-bikes and e-scooters weave alongside traditional bikes and skateboards; students walk in groups with headphones on, and many have their heads down on their phones.
The scene feels both energetic and slightly chaotic. It's a daily negotiation of space that campuses had not thought about when they were designed.
Micromobility mixing with pedestrians on campus has led to a growing concern among university administrators and the wider campus community. Micromobility refers to any small, lightweight, personal transportation vehicle including a bicycle, e-bike, e-scooter, skateboard, e-skateboard, and e-unicycle.
University responses to micromobility vary widely. Some institutions have moved to outright bans on electric scooters or electric skateboards. Others have done nothing at all, hoping the problem self-regulates.
Most have landed somewhere between the two, with a patchwork of rules that are not enforced, and reactive attempts to manage the issues. 1 of 3
Micromobility moves today's students
The growth in micromobility has been enthusiastically embraced by students because these vehicles offer a more affordable and efficient alternative to walking long distances or driving a car.
An e-bike can reduce a 20-minute walk to five. A shared scooter, operated by companies like Spin, Lime or Veo, might provide that first or last mile from a transit stop to a classroom building. For students juggling part-time jobs, a busy courseload, and tight budgets, that kind of time and cost savings is not trivial—it's empowering.
The heart of the problem is that universities have entered a new transportation reality without the planning, policy, and infrastructure to support it.
The universities that are managing micromobility well have embraced it, treating micromobility as a part of the wider transportation and mobility system. Densifying college campuses are making more space for energy efficient forms of transportation: people walking, riding bikes, scooters and transit.
Write policy before crisis does
The most common mistake campuses make is writing a micromobility policy after something goes wrong. Policy written in reaction to crisis tends to be blunt and punitive. Policy written proactively can actually shape behavior.
A comprehensive policy should be explicit about which vehicle types are permitted, where, and at what speeds. Universities should establish zones for pedestrians only, slow riding, and priority micromobility routes, separating and integrating the modes where possible.
Required registration for all personally owned micromobility vehicles will ensure safety standards have been met, and data is being collected to inform future planning and infrastructure improvements. A policy should also establish short and long-term parking and storage rules, so students understand where they can and cannot leave these vehicles.
Design your campus around people, not cars
Strategic infrastructure planning starts with an honest reckoning about who the campus is designed for. Most university campuses declare themselves pedestrian-first but still organize their physical space by pushing pedestrians to the margins of the street. That has to change.
First, establishing a mode of transportation hierarchy—pedestrians first, followed by human-powered mobility, then low-speed micromobility, transit, and finally private vehicles—will formulate who has the right of way and how space is allocated.
Prioritizing pedestrians and human scale mobility means redesigning streets and intersections to reduce car speeds and expanding areas for people walking, biking, rolling, and scooting. The mode hierarchy can be a design decision tool to be applied to every capital project and streetscape improvement. 2 of 3
E-bikes and e-scooters require charging. Safe outdoor charging options should be a basic safety requirement for any campus that allows electric micromobility.
A ban on charging e-scooters and e-bikes in university buildings, without an outdoor, managed solution, is effectively a ban on the transportation option itself.
Safety is a culture, not a campaign
Enforcement alone will not create a safe campus. The goal is to go beyond awareness and create genuine behavioral change. Rules and safety education programming should be integrated into new student orientation, residence life communications, and employee onboarding. The entire campus community should know the rules, understand what is expected, and have clear language about the consequences of unsafe riding behavior.
An enforcement plan that begins with education and warnings in the first weeks of a semester, escalates to fines and impoundment for repeat violations, and coordinates clearly with campus safety creates a structure that feels fair. Fairness matters in a campus environment where many students have significant skepticism about institutional authority.
The challenge at hand for many campuses is how do we build the infrastructure, culture, and capacity for these modes of transportation, while simultaneously preserving the pedestrian-first campus experience.
Something has to give. The car may still be king in the communities that surround university campuses, but if universities and colleges are going to continue to be vibrant hubs of learning and engagement, people must come before automobiles.
