different take on the scooter boom

From
http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2008/06/from-tour-to-torrid-its-getting-ugly.html
which is a blog that gets stuck into New York cycling culture.
Bike Snob's take on subcultures and the new breed of scooter riders:

================

Speaking of commuting, there's a new menace out there. Scooters:


True to their mandate of telling readers things they already know,
The New York Times recently reported that more people in New York are
turning to scooters in the face of high gas prices. Tell me about it.
Dealing with moronic drivers, moronic cyclists, and moronic pedestrians
is bad enough, but now we've also got to deal with the newbie scooter
owner. This is a distinct breed from the Mod or Ska scooter dork of old
who rides his two-stroke Vespa to the bar in a cloud of smoke or tunes
his Lambretta so it can reach blistering speeds of up to 48mph. I mean,
I hate those people too, but I hate them in the normal, friendly way that
I hate any subculture that's not my own. Every subculture knows it is
hated by every other subculture, and vice-versa. In fact, this truth is
so universal I think it's time people simply acknowledged it by greeting
each-other with a friendly middle finger when they pass. The world would
be a better place for the honesty. "Screw your two-tone side panels and
your Davida helmet." "Screw your Deep Vs and your Chrome bag." "Uh,
wanna grab a beer?" "Sure!"


No, the new scooter owner is a different breed entirely. This is the
person who has just bought a brand-new twist-and-go Vespa complete with
matching helmet and hard cases and has just gotten comfortable enough
on it to start splitting lanes, cutting between cars, and darting
into the bike path when the traffic gets heavy, but not comfortable
enough to actually handle the thing well and ride it without it going
all wobbly. Suddenly this flaccid, foppish metrosexual advertising
copywriter is on your turf - and he's dangerous. A truck unloading in
the bike lane makes me angry, but a Vespa in the bike lane makes me
furious. Even more infuriating is when they come bearing down behind
you. At first it sounds like someone's mixing a margarita or firing up
a vibrator in a convertible or something'then you realize you're not in
a Van Halen video and it's actually the diminutive whirr of yet another
dandy on a neutercycle. These people can barely handle machines that have
been mastered long ago by 90 lb. European women, and I hate them. If
you want to break traffic laws, ride a bicycle like the rest of us.

=========================

Zebee

 

A typical blogger ("I blog, therefore I rant") saying, although s/he
doesn't know it, "there, but for the scooter, goes your typical
Ozmotan."


Onya bike...

Gerry

 

"...At first it sounds like someone's mixing a margarita or firing up
a vibrator in a convertible or something"


BTH

 

I like scooters... they keep the car drivers on their toes - they have
no idea what the **** the bike (it has 2 wheels) will do next....
But yes, the average scooter rider might make it through puberty to
motorcycle-dom, or might just as easily buy a car with the usual
results... (SMIDSY - I used to have one of those - **** yer!)

Jaded Jeffles

 

I was seriously considering getting an electric scooter/moped but now I just
feel kinda' thirsty and randy.....

 

Pearls before swine, Iain, pearls before swine... <smirk>


Onya bike...

Gerry