Students are riding skateboards, bicycles and longboards to get around campus while the footbridge is closed.
Even when the bridge—which is closed this semester for repairs—is open, students are more often choosing to skate or bike around campus.
“I’m waiting for the footbridge to reopen so I’m like, ‘You know what? Might as well, since it’s mostly downhill on the way here,’” Mason Swink, a first-year cybersecurity student who longboards on campus, said. “I can go completely across campus in, like, two minutes.”
A longboard is larger than a skateboard, has softer wheels and is better for cruising and going long distances, according to Swink.
Students who skateboard said it’s quicker than walking and better for the environment than driving.
“I feel like when I use [my longboard] to get places, I’m … not using emissions to get places, which I like,” Gabby Bly, a second-year production design student, said.
Another student said skating on campus is fun.
“It’s faster. It’s fun. I like it,” third-year entrepreneurship student Thomas Cosgrove, who rides a skateboard on campus, said. “It gives me something to do instead of just walking.”
For some students, alternative modes of transportation are a necessity.
“It is … my only form of transportation,” Mitchell Freeman, a second-year chemical engineering student who bikes to campus, said. Freeman said a bike doesn’t need gas or insurance, which saves him money.