The University of Maryland will be removing all stop signs across campus to lighten the load on law enforcement and ease the financial burden on the university after a major decision from the Department of Transportation Services on September 25th, 2024, regarding stop signs as being ineffective.

Considering the University of Maryland’s large campus, it’s no wonder that many students opt to use micro-mobility vehicles such as bikes, scooters, and their electric counterparts to traverse the campus. As such, these micro-mobility vehicles tend to share the roads with much heavier vehicles (like cement trucks), which has led to major conflicts on the road.

Many students have reported bikes, scooters, and even cars speeding through intersections without even slowing down. The University of Maryland Police Department (UMPD) issued around 85 warnings to micro-mobility vehicles just this semester for speeding past stop signs without stopping. However, these warnings have been largely ineffective as a deterrent, and many riders continue to disregard stop signs.

When the Hare interviewed one of the upper-level DOTS officials about the decision to remove stop signs, they answered: “These stop signs were always an experimental implementation to see if it would make traffic around campus more efficient. It wasn’t an easy decision, but we believe removing them will be the right thing to do moving forward.”

“Yeah, it’ll make traffic around these roads much easier to get around,” asserted student Craig Lee. “I mean, these stop signs were slowing down only the cowards. With the signs gone, we’ll be able to cull out those e-scooter people who don’t pay attention to the road and who slow down all of us.”

Although many sources predict that fatalities will skyrocket with this act, it will speed up traffic and allow students to get to their favorite dining halls more quickly. Experts predict students will now arrive one minute before they close instead of after.

The removal of stop signs has been a massive load off of UMPD, which can focus more of their manpower and resources on more important matters, such as sending the ten-billionth alert about another suspect that will never be caught. 

The financial office has released a statement that the removal of stop signs will lighten the load on the already tight budget. Supposedly, stop signs have had a higher maintenance cost than the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (especially when it came to air fresheners) and the Robert H. Smith School of Business combined.

While many more roads and sidewalks will be inaccessible due to this large uptick in construction across campus, UMD President Darryll Pines argues this will be a necessary change for the future of the university. However, students will still be expected to arrive at their classes on time and in one piece.

Image Credits: Parker Johnson