Scooter Commuters
Downtown merchants among fuel-efficient trendy travelers
Cars are convenient, and bikes are nice, but when it comes to quick transportation with an effortless edge, scooter commuters have all the right moves.
Richard King, owner of The Blue Note, is one of Columbia’s pioneering scooter commuters.
King got his 1978 Vespa five years ago from a friend who owed him a favor.
“It’s a classic,” King said of the Italian-made, 49cc scooter. “I think I’m the only one driving a Vespa.”
It takes just a couple of minutes for King to leave his house near the public library, buzz down Broadway and pull into his nightclub on 9th Street.
“It’s a pretty cool little ride,” King said.
Paul Vernon, owner of Top Ten Wines, bought his first scooter about three years ago after getting fed up with feeding the meter and paying parking tickets.
Vernon now drives a 49.5 cc Schwinn Collegiate and saves more than $50 dollars a month—money he used to drop on meters, parking tickets and gas.
“It always seemed silly to drive by myself to work,” said Vernon, who commutes about a mile from his home to Top Ten Wines and parks his scooter right next to the 9th Street shop’s front door. “Walking and bike riding are nice, but if you want to run across town after work, having a scooter will allow you to do so.”
One prime example is a Friday night wine tasting when Vernon had forgotten to purchase cheese and crackers. He placed a sign on his store door, hopped on his scooter out front, traveled to Gerbes on Paris Road, made his purchase, and got back to his store within 20 minutes.
John Pham, owner of Bangkok Gardens on Cherry Street, was driving his car to Sam’s Club earlier this year when he spotted a scooter for sale on a lawn. He snapped it up.
“It’s a riot to ride,” Pham said. He bragged about one recent errand in which he bought three 50-pound bags of rice at Chong’s Oriental Market around the corner, strapped two to the floorboard and put one on his lap, and was back in the kitchen in minutes.
“I’m thinking about getting a fleet of these for downtown deliveries,” Pham said.
His Yamaha Vino gets about 80 miles to the gallon, and he spends less than $2.50 to fill up the tank every week or two.
Reid Lyle, a scooter salesman at Procycle on Range Line Street, said he believes that the rise in scooter sales is directly correlated with gas prices. He saw a jump in sales after the price of gasoline hit $3 a gallon earlier this year.
“Columbians are smart consumers and care about the environment,” Lyle said. “Of course, good weather always helps sales as well.”
Lyle said he’s selling scooters “for hobbyist and practical use alike.”
Tom Kingsley, a lead printing-plant operator at Tribune Publishing, said he finds his scooter to be the most practical means of tooling around town because he doesn’t have to find parking, it puts out very little emission, and it saves miles on his car. Plus, he doesn’t have to pay insurance on it—or pay the state for plates.
“I initially got the scooter for my 13-year-old son, but when I found out it got 75 miles out of a tank of gas, I said, ‘Hey! This is mine!’” Kingsley said. “When I bought it I paid $350, and it had 124 miles. I’ve put on 1,500 miles since.”
According to Kingsley, the only disadvantage to the scooter is a delay when he’s making left turns at some stoplights because the combined weight of the scooter and his body is not enough to trigger the sensor that turns the light green.
Vernon warns that although you don’t need a license for scooters under 50 ccs, safety is still the No. 1 priority. He broke four ribs when he was hit by a van, and he considers himself lucky since he was wearing only a bike helmet.
“You should wear a good, durable motorcycle helmet when riding a scooter. Anyone who treats a scooter like a bicycle is making a huge mistake,” said Vernon. “I learned very quickly that car drivers don’t really notice you, and you can’t stop as fast as on a bike because of the weight and momentum.”
King wears a helmet and agrees that scooter commuters need to be extremely careful when navigating among cars and trucks.
“You really have to drive defensively when you’re riding anything with two wheels in this town,” said King, who used to ride his scooter every day but lately has been on an exercise kick and now rides his bicycle most days. “They’re really convenient. You can get around town really quickly if you don’t play by all the rules, although I do play by the rules for the most part.”