AMHERST — A main section of the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus will be off limits for people riding bicycles, e-bikes, scooters and skateboards as a pilot safety initiative begins Tuesday.
With a growing concern for the well-being of those walking through the core campus, defined as bound by North Pleasant Street to the east, Hicks Way to the west, the Haigis Mall to the south and Goessman Laboratory to the north, UMass is instituting the Pedestrian Only Zone to support a safe and accessible pedestrian environment for students, faculty, staff and visitors.
People with disabilities who depend on mobility devices, such as wheelchairs, will be excluded from this policy, and emergency or state- and vendor-approved maintenance vehicles will also be able to enter this zone.
For all other people, though, including those on bicycles and e-bikes, scooters and e-scooters, golf carts and skateboards, requests will be made that they dismount and walk their small-wheeled vehicles. Those who want to stay on their wheeled transport will be redirected to North Pleasant Street, Hicks Way, and the path connecting the Whitmore Administration Building to North Pleasant between Haigis Mall and the Bromery Center for the Arts. Other areas outside the core campus, including much of the Commonwealth Honors College and most of the dorms, are also not affected.
“This pilot program prioritizes the safety and well-being of our students, faculty, staff and visitors who walk our campus daily,” Jeff Hescock, assistant vice chancellor of environmental health and safety and emergency management, said in a statement. “By asking riders to dismount in the core campus, we are creating a more accessible landscape that makes our campus more welcoming.”
The initiative was developed following conversations about pedestrian and rider safety held last spring with the Faculty Senate, Student Government Association and Graduate Student Government.
At multiple Faculty Senate meetings, an undergraduate representative raised the issue of improving pedestrian safety and pointed to a survey, coinciding with the Student Government Association election, indicating students want restrictions on e-mobility devices, including electric scooters and electric bikes.
The referendum during the election indicated that more than 30% of those voting wanted e-mobility devices banned from campus.
In that same referendum last spring, according to results printed in the Daily Collegian newspaper, more than six in 10 student voters said they had a near-miss collision with e-mobility devices since the beginning of the fall 2025 semester, and just under 10% reported they had been involved in an accident or hit by an e-mobility device.
UMass joins other campuses across the country with similar measures, including Montana State University, Harvard University, Arizona State University, the University of North Carolina, the University of Maryland and the University of California-San Diego.
To support the transition, signs will alert people to the designated vehicle-dismount boundaries. These signs state “Got wheels?” with illustrations of a bike, scooters and a skateboard, and below that reads “pedestrians only: walk your wheels beyond this point.”
UMass will have expanded parking zones at the perimeter of the restricted areas for e-mobility devices.
In addition, pedestrian and rider safety ambassadors will be stationed throughout the core campus during the semester to educate the community, distribute maps and guide riders to nearby storage racks.
Later this fall, outdoor solar-powered charging stations for e-bikes and e-scooters will be installed, as well as lockable storage areas.
Maps, answers to frequently asked questions, and a survey to share feedback are available at umass.edu/ehs/pedestrian-only-zone-program.
Because it is a pilot program, at the end of the semester, the university will assess next steps for the new zone.
