About a half an hour later, I was sitting in my living room, getting ready to watch an episode of Stargate SG-1, when the phone rang. It was my buddy again, but this time, he wanted to know if I was up for a round of pitch and putt. My answer was, "heck yeah!" of course. So, I grabbed my clubs which have a pack style harness on them, shrugged into the shoulder harness, and hopped on the scoot to go up the road about a mile and a half to Evergreen Golf. The ride was relatively easy, even with the 55 mph speed limit and a bag of clubs over my shoulder.
It was a little misty and the grass was wet, but aside from that, it was a nice day to hit the greens. I played horribly, but then, I'm not a great golfer. I enjoy it just the same, probably more because of the company than because of the game itself.
All of the riding I do, and the errands I run, and the excursions I go on while on my scooter, have gotten me to thinking; what is so hard about living a life revolving around a two wheeled vehicle?
One of the best known icons of America is the Automobile. The American mindset regarding the automobile has traditionally been, "bigger is better." Contrast that with Europe and most of the rest of the world, where two wheeled transportation and small autos have been the norm for decades.
With the cost of gas, the current economy and several other factors, it seems possible that we may see more Americans adopt a two wheel centric lifestyle, but many will still balk at the idea. I read a post on the local newspaper's forum today, in which a woman stated that she could never use a cycle or scooter since she has several children and it would never work for her. I can think of several ways she could make it work. Of course, if she is a parent who has her children involved in several different clubs, extra-curricular activities, and so on, reducing the amount of baskets into which she puts her proverbial eggs, might solve that problem.
In my opinion and from my observations, the large vehicle mentality comes out of the overwhelming privilege we have in this country, which is not at all a bad thing; however, we have, unfortunately, come to take the blessings we have for granted. Instead of conserving, we have used that privilege to build more and more low efficiency vehicles and have allowed our government to mandate changes such as cafe standards and ethanol restrictions (in some states %10 ethanol is mandated in all gasoline, despite its shortcomings), which do little to solve the problem, and in some cases, make it worse.
As a society, it would behoove us to move to a simpler lifestyle. I don't see it happening anytime soon, but there is certainly something to be said for returning to the days of the single car household. Unfortunately, it is unlikely to happen any time in the near future, for more reasons than I care to hypothesize. One possible reason that I will point out is that we seem to be convinced that we need two or more cars in every household, and we shape our lives in such a way as to make it necessary.
The way I see it is, if I can take long distance trips, go golfing, grocery shopping, hunting, fishing, take my kid to school and church functions, and so on, with only a 150cc scooter, there really is no reason that any other adult cannot do so. I in no way wish to force others to bend to my will, but simply want to make it clear that the argument "I can't possibly do everything I need to on a two wheeled vehicle," may not be as true as it seems on the surface.
Edited to add:
There are some exceptions of course. I rented a roto-tiller last week and picked up some salt for my water purifier. Carrying three fifty pound salt blocks and a medium sized tiller on my scooter would have been difficult and would have been too much for the suspension to handle, but for basic daily tasks, a scooter is well suited.
And in reference to Joe's comment, good rain gear can significantly alter the comfort level of riding in the rain. Snow and ice, on the other hand, are an entirely different story, and I do not begrudge anyone the use of a four wheeled vehicle in those conditions.
Thank you for the reminder Joe! :)
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5 comments:
"I can't possibly do everything I need to on a two wheeled vehicle," may not be as true as it seems on the surface.Except for those days when rain or worse forms of precipitation are in the forecast or falling. I can't stand being cold and wet or slip, slidin' away. If not for that annoying stuff that falls from the sky, I'd agree with you.
You can always fashion a trailer for the scooter.
Paul , you have touched on something I feel very strongly about. I may write about it sometime soon in my blog, but suffice it to say for now that 2 wheeled transportation probably cannot work for everybody, but can work for a lot of people. For me the availability of decent public transportation has helped a lot on days where snow or ice kept me from riding. The wife and I now have one car and a scooter, and it works very well for us. I absolutely avoid snow and lightning, but otherwise with proper gear, I am riding.
How many times do you see a large SUV or pickup and there is only one person in the vehicle. Granted that there may be good reasons for that, but people use their own vehicles so inefficiently, that it has become mind boggling to me.
Paul:
I don't think I could function without a car, and I have 2 cars and 2 bikes, so it's not about saving money, but reducing my carbon footprint. This morning while on my scoot, I was beside an SUV. I was thinking to myself that that SUV driver should be thanking me for allowing him to purchase "extra" gas to fuel that big thing as I was enabling him the opportunity to do so by reducing my gas usage. I like to think that I am averaging the MPG in my fleet.
bob
bobskoot: wet coast scootin
Years ago I did the "motorcycle as a car" thing. The problem is that two wheelers lose their appeal pretty fast when you have to use them all the time. Rain and cold are no fun. Worse than getting cold is thawing out. My fingers hurt for half an hour, even with good mittens. Plus, bikes don't stand up to the elements well. I burned up wheel bearings and had steering head bearings lose their grease because of rain. The sun bleached the paint and dried and cracked my seat cover. My Kawasaki wore out switches and had seals leak. Even speedometers gave out in the cold. After two and a half years I gave up, bought a second car and enjoyed riding when I wanted to. Both the bike and I were much happier.
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