Scooters: pros and cons

Last question first, they are dead easy to drive. safety wise, you are definitely more exposed, but also not going as fast or with as much mass. Drive it safely, wear a helmet and you'll be at no more risk than in a car.

as for luggage, you can add all kinds of carriers to the piaggio vespas (which I know best). you may need to invest in some good fabric grocery bags and some bungies but that should be OK.

you want serious load capacity, get an Ape:

http://www.vtl.piaggio.com/img/cross_still.jpg

Pronounced Ah-peh, italian for Bee.

i managed groceries & laundry on my vespa just fine. small to medium loads even.

I rode a Honda Supercub for a about 4 years. Great, great mode of transport. Cheap to maintain and fuel. Parking is a breeze. If you put a cargo box on it, you can carry a good amount of stuff.

But it's definitely dangerous. Wearing a helmet helps reduce the risk, but you are very vulnerable and will fly after a collision. They are much more dangerous than cars. Of course they are. Being really careful and defensive is the best way to avoid injury and hope for the same from others on the road.

Where do you live? I was riding in Tokyo, where there are a whole lot of two-wheeled vehicles. Do you live in a place with drivers who are used to encountering bikes?

There's hella motorcycles here but not so many scooters at all. I'm a very good driver and on my bicycle I've had to be super defensive: I've got the basic traffic vibe and culture pretty much figured out. I live in southern New Mexico in a smallish town (70,000 or so) so there's no big multi-lane roads or freeways connecting things.

The Piaggio three-wheeler looks like fun, but would be pretty useless for me (the brochure says it will do 77 - I'm not getting on the highway to find out).

http://i.cnn.net/money/2006/09/22/autos/piaggio_scooter/piaggio_scooter_red.03.jpg

Sounds like an excellent idea. Scooters are great fun, and in a small town with big roads they'll be as safe as they get. Of course, the ideal would be to ride a bike.. But scooters are fab. Get a 125cc one, though, not 50cc whatever you do.

Riding a bike in this town is pretty volatile except you can cut through the abandoned parking lots of 450 strip malls. Most people (in cars) tend to act like you're a cow that is rudely taking up their road and honk at you.

It's also hard to carry things on my bike and all groceries/laundries are over 2 miles away, which to yours truly the pansy is a daunting distance.

'No Scooter in my pub'

Not to knock the scooter, but have you got panniers for your bike? Because nothing makes riding a bike more unpleasant than wearing a rucksack whilst doing it. Have you considered a trailer?

also Marck C OTM about the 125cc thing.

I say go for it. They're a blast.

I do prefer a bicycle at this point though.

Haha, look at my username and my former scooter. I'm such a dork.

I would love to still have my scooter but I couldn't justify it for legal and safety (and cost) reasons. They are SUCH fun, just to reiterate what everyone's saying.

cutest mailtruck ever

Here teenagers use this:

http://img.tweedehands.nl/f/normal/60414355-nieuwe-skyteam-50.jpg

Well, they used to a couple of years ago. I quite like'em.