I'm just talking theoretically as I have no plans to get a scooter... but I'm wondering what would be going thru the minds of a car commuter, stuck in traffic, paying high gas prices...

I can get a new scooter, Honda SES 125 Dylan for £1500 with 2 year warranty (but it's a Honda so I wont need it). I already have a helmet but suppose I didn't, I would spend £50 on one. Fuel would be £30 per month, insurance £100 per year. Call it £2000.

I can also get a very good bike for £1000. I have all my cycling gear, but suppose I was starting from scratch, then I'd need £200 for accessories (clipless pedal + shoes + clothing + lights + airpump). Call it £1200.

So for £800 more, I'm getting a scooter, that's more comfortable, as fast as a car on the freeway, faster than a car in traffic, just as easy to park as a bike. Not only would I get to my destination faster (than a car or a bike), I wouldn't need to waste time taking a shower or be concerned about work clothes that were [relatively] crease-free. Same thing on the way back, would be faster and wouldn't need to shower.

Scooter would require less maintenance, stores items securely in it's compartment, can be used for seeing friends when going out and socializing (no sweat, no smell) and dont need to wear funny clothes with cleated-shoes (ok that last bit's an option, you dont have to wear funny clothes and cleated shoes, but your pedalling efficiency would go down and your drag would also be higher thru the wind).

So if one has a car and was considering either a scooter or a bike to commute on, what would one choose?

Get both!

Add insurance, gas and decent protective gear.
If you're a newbie you'll likely have an expensive off in the first six months which will cost more to fix than a reasonable commuter.
Tyres and servicing costs... a scoot probably gets worn out before a decent bicycle too.

Scooters are probably halfway between bike and car.

I have a car, a scooter and a bike.
A scooter doesn't give you any of the health benefits.
And depending on the scooter, the emissions can be worse than cars... think 2-strokes.
But I use all 3 pretty much equally.... well, if I don't need to I'd rather not drive the car but that's not always an option.

get a real motorcycle or a real bicycle

+1 except I got rid of the car. Now all I have is a 250cc automatic motorcycle that looks like an oversize scooter and several bicycles. 2-stroke motorcycles and scooters were banned from domestic manufacture and importation Jan. 1 2006. I live in Alabama so riding the motorcycle year round is no big deal. We actually enjoy a few rare days of below freezing temps to kill off the bugs so there not so bad the other three seasons. My motorcycle has a wind screen and as it uses scooter styling I stay dry except when stopped so a simple rain suit on rain days works just fine to keep me dry and when properly dressed for winter riding I stay warm as well.

If you're really thinking about bike vs scooter to save money, go bike. Your assumption that gas is as expensive as it will get is faulty. Five years from now we're going to look back at 2008 as being "the last of the good years". I'd put money that the price of gas will double in 10 years. We don't bike to save money today... we bike so we can save money for the rest of our lives.

Taking the kids to school will look like this.


Finding a parking space is hard.


Traffic is banned from the bus lane.


Modern materials allow people to fly again.

Something's missing from that statement. 2-stroke motorcycles are definitely still being sold.

I think the scooter fad is the dumbest thing I've seen in a while. I have no problem with people getting them for the sake of gas mileage. What I do have a problem with is all of these damn yuppy or metrosexual scooter gangs popping all over that negate the gas savings by extra riding.

Exactly. Here on the Wasatch Front in Utah, air quality is pretty piss poor. I hope they clamp down on scooter emissions soon. And enforce them not being on the freeway.

As opposed to all of the car clubs that do the same?

If they're a club type of person, they are still saving gas compared to driving all those miles. Besides, most of those types of scooter riders are doing it because they want to, not to save gas or for environmental reasons... even if they may claim to have those concerns --- kind of like all the cyclists who become environmentalists when it suits their purposes.

I don't think riding a scooter is any dumber than any other motorized vehicle. It's certainly more fun than creeping along in a car. When we were 12 we would have likely killed someone for a scooter. Now that we're grown it's not manly enough.

If it's testosterone driven, I'm more forgiving. I love it when I see Harley groups riding down the road. My post was meant to be more sarcastic than opinionated.

And the scooters are starting to disappear just like out bikes. They are just plucking them off the street and parking lots and throwing them in back of pick ups.

Old stock or illegal importation. See link below for details of the ban.
https://www.epa.gov/EPA-AIR/2002/Augu...-14/a19437.htm

Exactly. I have all of 'em. My 50cc scooter was not a sound purchasing decision. Not a total loss, but really, an XtraCycle would have been far better.

I wish.

The correct answer would have been that it only applies to street legal motorcycles I believe. Honda alone has probably eight models of 2-strokes this year... certainly neither old stock or illegal imports.

Read an interesting comparison lately:
Back in 1977, 2 journalists did a 300 mile road trip together. One on Honda C50 moped, another one on Stella racing bicycle. Honda was carrying the tent, sleeping bags and luggage for both. The idea was to compare the efficiency of the 2 vehicles. Honda used 1.8 gallons of fuel in 303 miles, for an average of 168.3 mpg, at a total cost of $1.13. (Someone will surely point out that fuel prices are a LOT higher these days, well, so are food prices). Meanwhile the cyclist consumed $4 wort of granola bars, fruit and energy drinks, none of which the moped guy needed.
We know now that it takes about 1 calorie of oil to produce a single calorie of unprocessed food in US, and 4-10 calories of oil to produce 1 calorie of processed food (such as granola bar), so, enviromentally speaking, Honda won. And the fact that the cyclist exhaled a lot more CO2 was not even taken into consideration.

get a Harley

I would imagine that you can get a good bike for the money, in which case it's a very different scenario.

A scooter does save you the physical exhaustion and perspiration of a bike; however, you would still be part of gas-consuming traffic and restricted to those laws. You don't have the freedom a bike allows you to have.

When I'm next to a scooter at a light, I can definitly smell their exhaust. I usually can't when next to a car (unless it's a gigantic turbo diesel dodge truck).

I'm in the utah valley and in the winter the air quality gets pretty bad with the inversions. Fewer scooters come out during that time of year though.

Currently we have 2 bikes (my wife and I), 1 800cc motorcycle, and 1 car (nissan sentra). For longer distances we put the kid in the car and hop on the freeway, for city stuff (as long as it's not too hot for the baby) we'll take him in the bike trailer. Right now I really only use the motorcycle for fun and use the bike for commuting / errands.

I ride my bike at least 3 days a week and ride a 1980 Honda CT 110 @ over 100 MPG the other 2. But I've had the honda over 8 years now, but it only has 2000 miles on it. I got it for the back of the travel trailer, but sold it 2 years ago.

I'm toying with the idea of getting a scooter just to get to the train station, which is about 3-4 miles away. Its an easy bicycle ride, but I wear a suit to work and the weather here in Miami is just too lousy to commute in a suit for any more than a mile without getting completely drenched in sweat.