On today’s episode of NPR’s The World, Lisa Mullins talked to UCLA’s Brian Taylor about Piaggio’s full-page New York Times ad. Pretty unenlightening, the gist is “yes they save you gas money but you can’t pick up your dry cleaning.” Thanks for the insight. Sure, Piaggio’s motives aren’t entirely altruistic, but it’s a bummer to hear a liberal outpost like NPR laugh off the idea that more scooters might be good for America. (Thanks for the tip, Lu$.)
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So I’m the only one who picks up my dry cleaning on my scooter? Harumph.
I like that it’s geared toward local officials because the feds have their heads up their ass in terms of the real world effects of stringent EPA and DOT regs. Small displacement vehicles use less fuel, take up less space on the roads and cause less wear and tear on roads. But DOT requirements that are stringent and different from the rest of the world make homologation costs too high for importers the the most sweeping change to the current regs of the EPA have all but forced out the most popular forms in 50cc two strokes. So assuming that the fed can’t be fought one has to look to state and local governements for respite. States regulate how vehicles are licensed. In some places 50cc bikes are treated like bicycles and others they are treated the same as a 1200cc roadhog behemoth. If local authorities promoted more flexible parking options for smaller bikes this could greatly encourage ridership by people looking to commute on the fun and friendly scooter. If the limits would be issued more on size (such as wheelbase) then the 150 that is sometimes ticketed for boulevard parking would now be safe like their 50cc brethren. At the state level the regulations for motor vehicle licensing could be changed to either make the 50cc option less attractive by requiring special licensure for all 2 wheelers or raise the limit to 80 or 150 (or even 200) cc or rate by HP or Top speed. I’m not sure which is best. The former could encourage increased safetey by training and the later increase safety but returning the power lost by severely limiting the importation of 2 stroke scooters of the 50cc variety. I like the appeal to the local governement by the NYT ad. It’s the local laws that directly effect how the rubber meets the road.
but on the other hand:
And I was thinking about the actual number of miles one can expect with a
scooter. I’m sure one can get an et4/LX150 to last a really long time.
There are some higher maintenance costs but fewer likely big ticket repair
items. I think if you could get 50,000 miles out of scooter that would be
great. But how many more for a budget Hundai? another 100K at 3/4 the
MPG? Someone needs to do a cost/mile breakdown. I don’t think scooters
woudl stack up all that well compared to what people think. I’ve seen it
done for a few bikes in TWO. I think the ideal situation is to be able to
have both a car and scooter be able to keep your miles lower on your car.
If you used a scooter for short trips you’d probably find businesses a lot
closer to where you live. But all in all I think the comparisson
would break if compared to a relatively fuel efficient car. If people are
thinking that they’ll save money rather than driving their giant pickup it
may be a bargain but they shouldn’t be allowed to and be forced to pay
their retard tax for buying an industrial vehicle to commute with.
That just reminds me that I was thinking on the way to work this morning
how these bigger and bigger cars that people seem to be driving are a
joke. Car companies say, ‘that’s what the public demands’. But I think
that’s crap. Most people don’t have the money to buy cars with cash. So
they have to finance. But you can’t get financing for cars besides new
ones and ones that are just 1 or 2 years old with really low miles. New
cars get such sweet financing that it almost doesn’t make sense to get
even a 2 year old car. So if you want anything but a beater you have to
buy new. So you have to take what they give. They could put out the most
horrendous bulbous Detroit version of a toureg with a charicaturized
1940’s grill and people would have to buy something new cuz that’s what
they can get a loan for. All their offerings suck so they somehow pervert
that to say ‘that’s what the public demands’? I call bulshit.
I was going to make fun of you for writing “homologation,” but I looked it up and it’s actually the correct word. Welcome back, Brooke! Now I need to track down Jim-bob and we’ll be back to full strength in comments.
There are never any shortages of Jim-Bobs.