Kansas University officials are right: Pedestrians and wheeled conveyances like skates and skateboards just don’t mix.

Some student skateboard enthusiasts say they will ask the Lawrence City Commission to change the ordinance that prohibits skateboarding within 1,000 feet of Jayhawk Boulevard. The students say they don’t want to do tricks or hotdog maneuvers; they just want to ride their skateboards to class.

While that may be convenient for the skateboarders, it poses a hazard for pedestrians on the heavily traveled KU sidewalks. Between scheduled class times, there is hardly enough room for the people walking on sidewalks without the addition of skateboards weaving through the pedestrian traffic.

Skateboards may be a fun, even practical, means of travel in some areas, but the KU campus and downtown Lawrence aren’t among those areas. The city’s Traffic Safety Commission can hear the students out, but it is hard to imagine an adequate argument in favor of changing the current policy.