Is owning a scooter dangerous in SD? (San Diego, Corona: neighborhoods, purchases)

[Alter]

I ride a scooter everyday in LA. Is it more dangerous than a car? Yes. However if you get properly trained, wear proper gear, and drive sanely you will greatly reduce your risk. When you factor in stats you also need to figure out what the numbers behind them mean. How many involved alcohol, poorly trained riders, or excessive speed? If you want to be truly safe don't leave your house, it really isn't safe to drive a car or to walk anywhere there are cars.
Look at the amount of motorcycles and scooters on the road in CA. The way some of you talk there should only be 3 or 4 of left all the others are planted under an SUV's bumper. I find California to be a excellent place to ride. Two wheelers are common so drivers tend to be more of aware of us.
The best part? I actually enjoy commuting now. How many can say that?
http://www.msf-usa.org/downloads/If_...motorcycle.pdf

[ubringliten]

Originally Posted by rock_lobster!

... but I think they work well in Italy!! Ciao!!

Yeah, they sell a million scooters a year. Seems like it's their culture like cars is in our culture. I only hope in the future, that everybody will drive smaller cars, and in that way, scooters are easier to be incorporated into our culture.

I just bought a really nice bicycle this past weekend, and it was just really nice experience in San Diego. The ride makes SD, or my immediate neighborhood beautiful. I could see that experience with riding a scooter.

[ubringliten]

Originally Posted by Alter

I ride a scooter everyday in LA. Is it more dangerous than a car? Yes. However if you get properly trained, wear proper gear, and drive sanely you will greatly reduce your risk. When you factor in stats you also need to figure out what the numbers behind them mean. How many involved alcohol, poorly trained riders, or excessive speed? If you want to be truly safe don't leave your house, it really isn't safe to drive a car or to walk anywhere there are cars.
Look at the amount of motorcycles and scooters on the road in CA. The way some of you talk there should only be 3 or 4 of left all the others are planted under an SUV's bumper. I find California to be a excellent place to ride. Two wheelers are common so drivers tend to be more of aware of us.
The best part? I actually enjoy commuting now. How many can say that?
http://www.msf-usa.org/downloads/If_...motorcycle.pdf

Alter,

thanks for the link. how long is your commute and how often do you ride? here in SD, the cars go much faster than LA. but then you can argue there are less cars and street lights/intersections in SD than LA.

[bloom]

Originally Posted by ubringliten

I just bought a really nice bicycle this past weekend, and it was just really nice experience in San Diego. The ride makes SD, or my immediate neighborhood beautiful. I could see that experience with riding a scooter.

Outstanding and excellent decision given the near-unanimous advice given here. What type of bike?

[BRinSM]

I also commute 100% via my Vespa in LA. I've never used my scooter down in SD, but I can't imagine that it could be that much different. Anyways, I'm with Alter on this one, there are many misinformed people here. Yes, driving a scooter is inherently more dangerous for obvious reasons, but it also gives you many tools to be safer on the road. these include quick acceleration off of the line, quick handling, and small size. if you can learn to become a good scooter rider, you should actually be better at avoiding accidents.

besides the safety issues, considering the other perks of scooters made it an obvious choice for me. first off, i get 60mpg on my vespa, and that is actually at the low end of gas mileage on scooters, which is very helpful when considering $4 gas. i'm also a bit of an environmentalist, so my increased gas mileage makes me feel less guilty about using gas. back to the money, insurance is $200 for the year as opposed to $1000 per year in my old car. also, since I live and work in LA, the scooter does wonders for parking. parking in LA is terrible, but i never have any issues. my company also reimburses me for the parking spot that i gave up when i sold my car, so i actually get paid to drive to work on my vespa. i did the math a while back and calculated that i come out ahead about $200 per month commuting via scooter rather than in my car. lastly, and this is a big one, time savings! my commute is 6.5 miles each way. when i used to drive in my car, the commute was usually around 25-30 minutes each way. Now that I'm on my scooter, the commute is 15-20 minutes each way. if you take the freeway out of the picture, i can anywhere in the city faster than any car, they have no chance, especially if there is any traffic. i do have to say though that my wife has a car which we use for trips out of town and to costco. if i was a single guy though, i could easily see myself completely car free. you can always rent a car for about $20 a day if you really need one.

those aren't even all the perks, i could go on and on. scooters are more fun, there are scooter clubs that you can join, you can ride scooters year round in sunny so cal, etc... i wouldn't quite eliminate a scooter as an option quite yet.

[amc760]

Originally Posted by BRinSM

I also commute 100% via my Vespa in LA. I've never used my scooter down in SD, but I can't imagine that it could be that much different. Anyways, I'm with Alter on this one, there are many misinformed people here. Yes, driving a scooter is inherently more dangerous for obvious reasons, but it also gives you many tools to be safer on the road. these include quick acceleration off of the line, quick handling, and small size. if you can learn to become a good scooter rider, you should actually be better at avoiding accidents.

besides the safety issues, considering the other perks of scooters made it an obvious choice for me. first off, i get 60mpg on my vespa, and that is actually at the low end of gas mileage on scooters, which is very helpful when considering $4 gas. i'm also a bit of an environmentalist, so my increased gas mileage makes me feel less guilty about using gas. back to the money, insurance is $200 for the year as opposed to $1000 per year in my old car. also, since I live and work in LA, the scooter does wonders for parking. parking in LA is terrible, but i never have any issues. my company also reimburses me for the parking spot that i gave up when i sold my car, so i actually get paid to drive to work on my vespa. i did the math a while back and calculated that i come out ahead about $200 per month commuting via scooter rather than in my car. lastly, and this is a big one, time savings! my commute is 6.5 miles each way. when i used to drive in my car, the commute was usually around 25-30 minutes each way. Now that I'm on my scooter, the commute is 15-20 minutes each way. if you take the freeway out of the picture, i can anywhere in the city faster than any car, they have no chance, especially if there is any traffic. i do have to say though that my wife has a car which we use for trips out of town and to costco. if i was a single guy though, i could easily see myself completely car free. you can always rent a car for about $20 a day if you really need one.

those aren't even all the perks, i could go on and on. scooters are more fun, there are scooter clubs that you can join, you can ride scooters year round in sunny so cal, etc... i wouldn't quite eliminate a scooter as an option quite yet.

How are insurance rates for a scooter compared to car with a less than great driving record?

[Alter]

Originally Posted by ubringliten

Alter,

thanks for the link. how long is your commute and how often do you ride? here in SD, the cars go much faster than LA. but then you can argue there are less cars and street lights/intersections in SD than LA.

My commute varies since I go to client sites, school and office. It works out to about 150 miles a week. I ride everyday, including rain.
I'm not sure how speed relates but I've had one of my scooters up to 85 and use it regularly on the freeway. It would go faster but I'm not looking to be the fastest one out there....kind of one of those smart driving tips to help you stay alive.
The idea that scooters are slow, tiny toys is the stuff you gets from folks that know nothing about scooters. There are small scooters and scooters for people that do cross country touring. You need to match your needs with the right scoot. Being under powered is not safe but the average American notion that you need to be the biggest and fastest seems pretty outdated to me.

[ubringliten]

Originally Posted by bloom

Outstanding and excellent decision given the near-unanimous advice given here. What type of bike?

My gf and I bought a pair of TREK hybrid bikes with skinny tires. We're still waiting for the helmets to be delivered in which case, we will be riding alot further.

[bloom]

Originally Posted by ubringliten

My gf and I bought a pair of TREK hybrid bikes with skinny tires. We're still waiting for the helmets to be delivered in which case, we will be riding alot further.

With or without front suspension? 7200?

[ubringliten]

Originally Posted by bloom

With or without front suspension? 7200?

7.3FX, no suspension. we want the lightest bike possible without paying too much. you seem to know alot about TREK.