With over 950 acres of land to travel across, Kent State students often start their days far from classrooms or lecture halls. While some students don’t have too far to go, others come from off-campus housing and apartments, or dorms on the opposite side of campus.

PARTA buses and university-owned bikes are available for students to get where they need to go, but some students take matters into their own hands to avoid tardiness.

Junior engineering technology major Christopher Carswell uses a variety of equipment to get around campus. He rides scooters, skateboards, longboards and rollerblades to get to class and work.

“It’s a lot faster,” Carswell said. “Life’s just easier when you roll by.” 

Neil Patrick Estacio, a freshman visual communication design major, resides in the same residence hall as Carswell. He said that seeing Carswell move around quickly inspired him to find his own way of doing so.

“I saw Chris riding around with rollerblades, and thought it was cool,” Estacio said. “I couldn’t do that, though, so I decided to get an electric scooter. It can go pretty fast and you don’t have to put much effort into moving.”

While it may allow him to move quicker, Estacio said the scooter comes with some downsides.

“It’s pretty heavy and it takes up a lot of space,” Estacio said. “When it runs out of battery life, it takes lots of effort to manually push it.”

A survey sent out to university students showed that while many students who live on campus walk or skate, there are a few who bike or ride the PARTA buses to get to class.

Senior journalism major David Burgett frequently rode his bike around last semester, but it sometimes proved difficult.

“The hill on East Main Street is awful sometimes, especially to ride a bike on,” Burgett said in his survey response. “Often, drivers were not paying attention, and I was almost hit a few times.”

Kathryn Monsewicz, a senior journalism major, said she prefers to walk to class even on winter days due to PARTA’s slower travel time.

“I drive from Hartville, but park in C-Science to get to Franklin,” she said. “I walk in this miserable weather from there. I would take the bus, but it’s faster for me to walk there despite the distance and cold.”

Alex Johnson is the transportation and safety reporter. Contact him at [email protected]