Scooter-cide

I know I just wrote about my wonderful scooter, but I had an unbelievably bad time on it yesterday.

It seemed like every possible place where something could go wrong, it almost did.

I mean, how often do you see a semi backing across two lanes of traffic ... because it needs enough clearance to do a u-turn? (Actually, after a little mishap where a u-turning sugar truck retired my red baby Subaru, I don't have a lot of patience with trucks doing that particular maneuver.)

I even had to honk my horn at someone who almost turned left into me! (It worked, but probably because she heard it and thought, "Has a duck landed on my car? What is that funny little noise?" and paused just long enough to look for it. Then she saw me.)

I know the Flyer commenters have been all about the helmets and, yes, I was wearing mine, but I'm not sure it would have helped.

At any rate, today I'm in the car, chalking the whole thing up to it being so hot that no one can focus, and taking it as a reminder that Memphis drivers — myself included — are a crazy lot.


In happier times.

Ciao!

Here's one thing I've been thinking more and more about these days:


Over the years, I've looked at more than a few of these cute little numbers (and some on ebay that frankly weren't so cute) but now they seem almost practical. And, apparently, I'm not the only one. The Wall Street Journal had a story recently about the growing popularity of motor scooters:

"As the market for trucks, cars and motorcycles sagged, first-quarter scooter sales were up 25% from a year earlier, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council, a trade group. Manufacturers attribute the growth in part to sustained high fuel prices."

The story mentions the trade-off between fuel savings and vulnerability on the road. Bigger isn't always better, but they don't call those things organ donator-mobiles for nothing. I don't see that being the main problem — Memphis isn't as highway-dependent as other cities when it comes to getting around town — though with Memphis drivers you can never be too careful. My concern is that there are places in this city where people would steal your mother if you left her alone too long.

But how can you argue with a chart like this?


There used to be Vespa dealer in town; it doesn't look like there still is. But I've heard that some of the scooter places on Summer are really nice and helpful ... and that someone local is going to start importing refurbished Vespas from ... Japan? ... this summer. Obviously, I don't have all the deets (or any of them), but once I get them, I'll pass them along.