I love the wind whipping in my hair as I crank the tunes, screeching to a halt after tearing down Fremont Road at a brisk 3 mph and, of course, tooting my hand-held horn at drivers who are simply going too slow. As a notoriously bad parker, I have given up whipping it in the parking lot in favor of my trusty kids scooter.
And I am not the only one who has traded in their four-wheel drive for two puny tires. Growing weary of navigating consistent congestion and avoiding collisions, seniors have taken to riding razor scooters to school. The agility and speed of the scooters have contributed to their meteoric rise in popularity, as many students are able to circumvent long drop-off lines.
“The seniors might honestly be causing more accidents on their scooters than in their cars,” English department head Patricia Welze, who frequently supervises the parking lot, said. “Around 8:12 a.m., I see a brigade of seniors weaving between cars, and boy, do those scooters gain quite a bit of speed since the parking lot is sloped.”
A Perennial investigation found that only seniors participated in the trend as many wanted to avoid new drivers who were “fresh out of the DMV,” as senior Jake Kleiman put it. Scooters were also widely embraced because they reminded seniors of their childhoods.
Despite the complaints of clear and present danger — which all students interviewed refused to comment on — there is a larger and more obvious drawback: razor scooters are only three feet tall. While many students have accepted this fact and ridden to school hunched over, others have innovated. Access to 3D printers and leftover supplies from the robotics team has allowed senior Simon Braun to adapt his scooter to his needs.
“Unlike all of the other bozos, I motorized my scooter, lengthened the central rod so a grown man could use it and replaced the original wheels with ATV wheels,” Braun said. “I have essentially created a monster scooter.”
Braun has also hot-glued a mini Bose speaker and welded a bell to the handlebars.
Many are finding that scooters force them to slow down and “enjoy living la vida bonita,” as Kleiman put it. According to Kleiman, he has become more observant, noticing trees blooming, birds chirping and terrible driving during his 45-minute scoots to school. His love of the “moment” has led to multiple close calls, including forgetting to brake on Fremont Road and almost barreling into an SUV.
“If I hit a car, [it’s] not my problem,” Kleiman said. “Pedestrians’ right of way, am I right? I was just cruisin’.”
However, many students are finding it hard to leave campus during free periods. Restaurants that would normally be five minutes away now take far more time and effort.
“I’m disturbed that Chipotle is 45 minutes away on a scooter,” senior Charlotte Van Gent said. “But the exhaustion makes the three extra dollars for guacamole worth it.”
Senior Sachi Urushima, who rides a bright pink scooter with tassels, prefers this method of transportation to a car. Although she no longer has a back-up camera, sensors or seatbelts, Urushima said that scooting to school with a large group of friends makes her feel significantly safer.
“On a scooter, it’s a lot easier to steer clear of ditches, potholes and debris on the road,” Urushima said. “I feel a lot safer on my razor, especially since I’m always riding with friends. And that’s really what the second semester is all about: enjoying our last couple of months of school with our friends.”
