Is it dumb to get a scooter when you can drive a car?
Sunday, August 29th, 2010 at
9:08 pm
I’m getting my license for cars soon (hopefully), but I would much rather drive a scooter because they are cheaper, easier, and more fun. However, I can’t drive it in the winter and my parents are nervous because scooters are more dangerous than cars. How can I convince my mom it is not a dumb idea?Any thoughts? Thanks.
You can’t convince your mom, unless she’s dumb, or you are driving less than 3 miles a day.
There is a reason why you don’t see scooters everywhere in the US.
Sure, they are cheap. But not nearly as cheap as they should be. Any name-brand scooter good enough for over 55mph will set you back over $3k, and a fancy one will be even more.
While a scooter might be more practical in environments where space is limited, the machine falls short in every other category other than MPGs.
A motorcyle is actually safer in most situations that don’t involve tiny-streeted European cities.
A usable motorcycle, believe it or not, of decent size, can be had for under $4k. It will stop faster, go faster, you won’t die when you hit a pot-hole, or void the warranty wihen you carry a fat passenger.
Even the scooters that do go fast enough to keep up with traffic are not neccesarily recommended to do so. If you see one on the Highway, the driver is probably lost, scared to death, and looking for the next exit.
One attractive scooter, the Yamaha Vino, along with some other Vespa clones, has been cited as being unstable at higher speeds, leading to injury or death.
They’ve increased the speeds of these machines, but kept the original "classic bistro" dimensions of many of them. The problem is, wheels that small are fighting the laws of physics above 35 mph. "Bistro/cafe" dimensions are great for Paris, but not American roads and traffic, especially our "shovel-ready" repairs that never get done.
I would say that if you have a lot of short trips to take then a scooter would be a good idea. It’ll save you money on gas and maintenance. If the weather is bad, a car would probably be a better option for safety.