I never imagined myself capable of riding a scooter. I eschewed scooters not because I was centripetally challenged but because I had trouble understanding how any self-respecting male could ride something pastel-colored or with a name like Vespa.
But eventually, I bypassed his ignorance and got to the meat of his piece, which was that the cost of purchase + the cost of operation of a new scooter would not save him money over just driving his used car. That's true. It would take him several years to be in the black on that purchase. But, this brings the question, "Is money the only reason to ride a scooter?" I emphatically say, "Heck, no!" [well, I actually didn't say "heck" but...]
While the author did factor in scooter insurance, he didn't mention anything about contacting his auto insurance company and requesting a reduction in annual mileage on the car. If you drive over 15,000 miles a year now and then earnestly get a scooter to ride often, it may benefit you to reduce the amount of miles you report for your car. 12,000 miles used to be the average. I drove about 25K annually when I commuted from San Jose to Foster City each day for 5 years. So if I could report a marked reduction in miles it may have impacted my insurance.
That being said, he totally ignored all the other positive things that come along with scootering: reducing traffic & parking congestion, reducing the overall fuel one consumes, and just having *fun*! I've said it before and will probably say it again. Americans should look at scooters as a new mindset, a new way to approach transportation, not just some short turn way to save money. Long-term lifestyle changes are what we need in our society on many fronts, and scooters can provide some welcome positive change for the US. Perhpas looking at it as, "what am I doing for the world?" instead of "What am I doing short-term for my pocketbook?"
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