electric scooter?

Scooters are only good in warm climates. California, yes...North Dakota in December...not so much. New scooters still cost a few grand, and it's a hard sell for someone who's middle class to buy one, when they can only use them 2-4 months of the year.

I'm in Dallas and the local Vespa dealer can't keep them in stock. They're all over the roads these days.

I lived in OB up until about '89. From '85 to '87, I lived there without a car, used a 10 speed and city buses to get everywhere I needed to go. It was the only place I've lived where I've really been able to say that you didn't need a car to get around. My Ex is still there and swears that the only time she drives her car is to and from work. Uses her beach cruiser for everything else.

Certainly can't do it here in Dallas. It was 104 in my backyard today, a bit much for trying to pedal to the store.

My mother in law - who is living there - was actually a trend setter. She got her vespa after a happy experience with a rented one in Rome. Now it is hard to get new or used ones at a reasonable price.

In Toronto I have not noticed this trend yet.

To some degree I think its a sign of the time that many Indians and Chinese are upgrading to their first car while Americans are rediscovering the vespa.

Honda 50

Honda still makes the SuperCub, which mileage has slipped from the Old Days...but you can't buy them new in the U.S. anyway.

_{Turn back to the Constitution - and READ it.}

Scooters are only good in warm climates?

I beg to differ.

Granted, one may not be able to get around North Dakota on a scooter in December. But that's not the scooters fault. Up here in Denmark people scooter all year. Even more bicycle! Riding to work on a cold, dark, winter day isn't nearly as fun as tooting around Southern California but its definitely not a problem, hundreds of thousands of Danes ride their bike every day of the year.

Of course the dedicated bike lanes are cleared of snow (which small engine scooters can share).

I live in the Triangle area of North Carolina (made up of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill) and I'm seeing a huge uptick of scooters on the streets. We used to call them DUI Rides, but that's obviously not the case anymore. Well, I guess there could have been a million percent increase in DUI arrests in the last year, but I kinda doubt it.
Also, SUVs are seemingly on the decrease. The Target and Harris Teeter parking lots used to be so much fun in my wife's Saturn. When reversing out of your parking space, it was impossible to see around the gigantic SUVs parked on either side of you, thus no way to see the SUV that's cruising through the lot at 50MPH. These days, however, you're more likely to be surrounded by Priuses, Fits, Mazda 3s or even a Smart Car.

that I used when we shipped our car to British Columbia in anticipation of the Shell 4000 Rally. Glad I only had to drive it for one week, because the bugs on my teeth usually weren't the same colour as my outfit that I wore to the office! :-) One day it rained and that was not of lot of fun either because I was wearing my good office clothes--motorcyles don't come equipped with umbrellas! :-)

In anticipation of parking my vehicle in the garage, my research turned up a couple of sources of electric plug-in bicycles. I'm not buying a super cheap one because they don't hold their charges. This Ontario outfit has a nice selection Several with lithium batteries that hold better charges and don't have to replaced as often as cheaper batteries. The cheap ones people see in places like Walmart and Canadian Tire would get me to the store but not back! :-)

The nice thing about the electric bikes is no licences are required as opposed to the larger scooters and motorcyles that have to be roadworthy and require the operator/driver to have a road licence. All that's required for an electric plug-in bike is being over 16 years of age and agreeing to wear a helmet.

From what I found out...it's almost as much to buy a kit for a bike and then you don't know if the forks are strong enough...so it's better to buy one that's specially manufactured for being power assisted and comes with a guarantee that it won't fall apart. Batteries add a lot of weight to a bike and the frame must be strong to handle the extra weight.

Fortuntely, my health is good at my age; I'm very capable of driving one to the store and back to fetch groceries. I'll only use my car when I really, really have to make longer trips to go and see my mother who lives 50 miles away.

If all of us started using bikes and reducing our carbon footprint, perhaps the world would go into recovery mode? Mass usage would put a strain on electrical grids...but they all need upgrading anyway--most states and provinces infrastructures--governments haven't kept them financed well. It's time they DID. Federal, provinces, states, and municipalities have been fleecing taxpayers for longer than I can remember, it's time they upgarded infrastructure and kept it up-to-date.

What our bikes cost us will quickly be recovered by the cost of gasoline we don't use.