alternative hippopotamus

progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital

December 16, 2007

Hmmm, Scooters

by AltHippo @ 12:10 am. Filed under Uncategorized

I saw this blog on the NYT site on scooters, and I thought it was worth passing on. The premise is that due to the fuel efficiency of scooters (the author singles out the Yamaha Vino, a scooter I’ve had my eye on in case a rich, distant cousin suddenly passes on and leaves me a cool $3k) it’s time we take a look at transportation alternatives.

There’s a number of twists that the article didn’t explore, were over-simplified, or were just off-base. For instance, this line: “The biggest drawback to a scooter is most helmets make you look kind of silly.” That’s not a well-thought-out observation. Picture if you will, you on the Yamaha Vino with your boyfriend/girlfriend riding second spot careening down Connecticut Ave, past Cleveland Park, past the art deco apartment buildings, over the bridges into Dupont Circle. Meanwhile, the author of the NYT blog stands there, arms folded, mumbling something to the effect of “that would look pretty cool if they weren’t wearing helmets.”

Not gonna happen.

Scooters are a perfectly viable alternative to the single passenger car, particularly in an urban environment. I think part of the commenter’s complaint is that if you’re going there, why not opt for a bicycle. Which is true. But, there’s some people who don’t like the idea of physically exerting themselves to get to where they want to go. That’s understandable, particularly if your workplace doesn’t have showers. It’s also possible that the folks who currently opt for SUVs do so to capitalize on what I’ll call the “bad-assedness” of the vehicle. Perhaps some of them would be drawn to a scooter for the same reason.

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hip·po·pot·a·mus n. A notion, perhaps distinct from conventional wisdom, that needs to be verified by reality-based scrutiny.

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