Motor Scooter Experiment

We spent a couple of weeks in Italy last summer, and I became fascinated with the Italians' culture of motor scooters and urban motorcycles.



Driving through Florence with scooters zooming alongside of us was thrilling and a little frightening -- except that I was more scared for the cyclists than for myself. They're incredibly daring.

All those scooters help to make Florence and Rome's dense urban culture possible, what with all their narrow streets and open squares. It's remarkable, from an American point of view, how Italian streets are shared equally by pedestrians, scooters, and cars.



I was also amazed at what the Italians could (or would) do while driving their scooters, such as smoke cigarettes or talk on cell phones. I even saw one old lady take her little dog along for the ride on her scooter's deck.

When I got back home, I kept talking about scooters so much that Laurette said, "Why don't you just get one? It's a much cheaper mid-life crisis than a convertible." So I did.

I bought a Kymco ZX50, which is made in Taiwan. You don't need a license to drive it; you don't have to shift any gears; you do have to wear a helmet; and you do need some kind of protective eyewear. Driving it is so much fun it will make you giddy. (That's me and my daughter Claudia being giddy at left.)

I used it as a commuter vehicle for most of the school year, even in winter. It wasn't really uncomfortable in cold weather as I feared it might be, though in the rain, as you might expect, you get wet.

My commute to work is about 2.5 miles, and the scooter saves me about 10 minutes because I can park it at the bike rack right in front of my building instead of parking in a more distant lot or deck. Doing so saves me $370 a year in parking fees.

My scooter gets about 80 mpg, and it saved me about $60 in gas this school year. At this rate, figuring savings in both parking and gas, it will pay for itself in about 3 years.

I've noticed that the sociology of the scooter is different here than it is in Italy. Over there, it's a middle-class utility vehicle, and almost anybody might own one. Here, a scooter is usually either a novelty item (as in my case), or, more commonly, it's a vehicle of last resort for poor people who've had their drivers' licenses revoked.

That's why I always wear a coat and tie while commuting to work.