Merry Christmas To All

One of the things I like about living in Lancaster is that the winters are pretty mild. I grew up in Erie, and up there riding would be just about impossible between November and April. But snow that persists for a week is rare in Lancaster.
Yesterday, Christmas Eve, I went for a motorcycle ride. It was so great to get out and keep the skills sharp. A couple incidents reminded me that motor-biking requires practice and diligence. A wide turn here, the rear tire sliding on some gravel there... And I passed at least 3 others on bikes as well. Temperatures were in the mid-40's and, with long-johns on, it was fine. Wouldn't it be great if that could become a tradition? The Christmas Eve ride.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

In The Year 2020: 35 Miles Per Gallon?

The Federal government is passing a law that auto manufacturers must meet a standard of 35mpg by the year 2020. This is supposedly up from 25mpg now. So how many of you are getting 25mpg? Do you think everyone will be getting 35 then?

I’m not impressed. Sure the auto industry is happy, but that is mainly because by requiring everyone to do it, nobody will lose by being the first one to build a car Americans clearly don’t want. Because if we did want them, we could buy them now.

And think about 2020: that’s 12 years from now. What was life like 12 years ago? There was almost no World Wide Web. No iPods. Email was rare. TVs were fat and lo-def. Cell phones still looked like phones and most people didn’t see the need to own one. And a Ford Contour was already getting 22mpg.

So yes, maybe the average fuel efficiency of vehicles has stalled a bit. But the cost of a gallon of gas is only up about a dollar since then. How much more are you paying for your phone(s)? Your cable? What expenses do you have now that you didn’t have then? High speed internet? Satellite radio?

My point is that we can’t imagine the world we will live in 12 years from now. Technology is advancing that fast. If fuel efficiency hasn’t kept pace over the last 12 years, it only because consumers haven’t made it a priority, because clearly we’re willing to spend the money on other things. It is possible that a new technological breakthrough will make cars with 35mpg look wasteful in 12 years. If cars still run on gas.

The best thing we could do to force the development of more efficient cars is to remove tax breaks for oil companies, remove price controls on gas, and let the price soar. Then let consumers decide what they want in a car.

P.S. Get a scooter.

What’s So Great About Scooters?

“What’s So Great About Scooters? Why Should You Care?” That is the title of a blog entry that is trying to convince us that scooters should be taken seriously in America. In actuality, the article is full of misinformation and opinions fueled by a lack of knowledge. So why should we care about this poor writer? Because his article appears under the New York Times masthead, which is going to give it (underserved) credibility.

His intention is good, and I agree that scooters can reduce traffic congestion and fuel imports. But the fallacies he spreads are dangerous. And he practically contradicts himself by implying that scooters are smelly and lawless in Europe before telling us we should adopt them here. He talks about how great the small, efficient scooters in Europe are, then comes to America and gets a bigger, less efficient scooter because, well, this is America, baby!

The discussion going on there includes a lot of people bragging about their own preferred brand of transportation. The pious Prius owners pipe up, proclaiming their own smug superiority (conveniently ignoring how much they pay for it compared to a scooter). Motorcyclists talk about how much safer a motorcycle feels (but I notice that people who say that have almost never ridden a scooter… so how would they know?) And the bicyclists chime in (but acknowledge that arriving sweaty after a work-out in 85-degree heat isn’t the optimal commute).

Scooters are cheaper and more efficient than any car sold today. Yes, there are compromises in collision safety and storage, but nobody is proposing to eliminate one or the other. We still need both. And motorcycles have their place, but scooters are easier to ride. For those who don’t understand why, here it is in a nutshell: no clutch. And yes, I do have both a motorcycle and a scooter (and a car) and I don’t feel any less safe on my scooter than I do on the motorcycle. It’s just… different. It depends upon where your mental safety zone is. If horsepower and stability over obstacles are your thing, get a motorcycle. If you want confidence starting out at intersections, even on steep hills, and you don’t mind slowing down for corners, a scooter is going to be fun too. What you may lose in feel by not straddling a scooter you probably gain with a lower center of gravity. And I’m pretty sure I’m less likely to lose a leg if I’m side-swiped on a scooter.

People who tell you that scooters are polluting and smelly probably got that impression from old 2-stroke scooters, not the modern fuel-injected, liquid-cooled, 4-stroke, catalytic-converted scooters being sold today. And there are just as many safety concerns with an idiot behind the wheel of a Lincoln Navigator as there are for a responsible person on two-wheels… the main difference being that the Navigator driver is more likely to kill you than themselves.

Scooters aren’t for everyone. But I believe that they are for more people than know it yet. So don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. And do your homework first. Whether you’re buying a scooter, or just writing an article about them.

Christmas Downtown

It's Christmas time, and tonight the Mayor lit the Christmas Tree in Penn Square. It was also First Friday, which means stores and gallerys downtown were open late. Even Central Market was open. So I had a chai latte and did some shopping.

And yes, I rode my scooter. What can I say, I'm a sucker for the free parking! Queen Street was closed between Vine and Orange, which had traffic snarled. If more people had been driving scooters, congestion would not have been so bad!

But I can't blame them. There was a little ice and snow on the ground. The streets were wet. It turned out that it wasn't much trouble for the fat tires of a C3. It was cold. Not much wind, but the few blocks I could get up to 35mph were a little biting. I wore my half-helmet with the face shield so that I could stash it under the seat while parked. It was only my chin and ears that were exposed. Otherwise there was no problem.

Monday it's supposed to get back up the the upper 40's. If the forecast holds, I'll ride to work. My goal is to commute on the scooter at least once every month throught the winter.

It's Peanut Butter Scooter Time!

I'd like to draw your attention to a blog that is doing something similar to this one for Columbus, Ohio. Her blog is called Peanut Butter Scooter Time, and I've added it to Scooter Links on the right side of this page. She posts more regularly than I do, which I admire. I think it's intersting that we both started blogs promoting scooters and our hometowns, and each came up with the idea independently. We have even both posted about similar issues like parking and what is the difference between scooters and motorcycles.

Parking on Duke Street?

I was downtown yesterday morning on an errand and saw a motorcycle-riding friend on Duke Street. He said that there were motorcycle parking spaces in the Duke Street Garage that used to be used by the police. The police stopped using them when the station moved 2 blocks West. My friend had been parking his bike there, but he said they are now chained off. What's up with that? I will have to investigate. If there really are motorcycle spaces there, that is in line with the Mayor's Strategic Plan. And chaining them off is not!

I'll keep you updated. It's not a priority however, as we are expecting 3" of snow today.