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OP, what are your carrying costs for the second car - insurance, annual tag, etc.
Also what are your two cars, year make and model? Does one have significant capabilities (that are important to you) that the other one does not have? Maybe you want to replace one of the cars with an older pickup, having a pickup around is quite handy and if you don't drive it a lot the worse MPG should not be a big issue.
Having 2 cars is quite handy, if you do your own work, while you are working on one, you still have the other to drive. If you don't do your own work, you can caravan down to the shop and ride home with your SO in the other car.
Final thought: If you have cars that you drive infrequently, consider a Deltran Battery Tender or similar trickle charger to keep the batteries up. You can get these with a plug to go into your cigarette lighter plug so you don't have to have the hood open as you charge. Having said that, if you have batteries that you can add water to, keep an eye on level and add DISTILLED WATER ONLY, not tap water, as needed.
Now as to the bike, depends on your own level of skill, what the weather is like, what traffic is like where you are. If you are new to bikes, do yourself a favor and take at least the MSF beginning rider course.
We have two vehicles but much of the time they are both in the garage. Several times a week, one of us goes off alone in a vehicle. The majority of the time when one of us goes off alone, the other person remains home.
I am thinking about getting a road-worthy electric 3-wheel scooter so I can do local errands and getting rid of one of our cars. Has anyone done this and had regrets?
Before you invest in one, tour all the most likely destinations a rider would want to reach and make sure it's actually possible on a scooter. If you can't share a traffic lane, are the shoulders wide enough? What condition are they in? Are there physical surface hazards a car can navigate without trouble but might be difficult for a scoot? If the road is an issue, are there alternative routes that permit powered scoots? You might test the routes with a bicycle. It might be an eye-opener.
I owned and drove an electric version of a Vespa for a few years. Yes, it was two-wheeled so stability in turns and on rougher surfaces was more of an issue. So was rain. I enjoyed riding it but only on more rural lower traffic/lower speed routes. Heavy traffic or higher speed cars whipping past everywhere made it not so nice.
How much of those distances would you need to ride in car traffic? What are the minimum speeds you'd need to legally maintain? What about hills? Too high or too long will limit the scooter's range considerably. Too long a trip might require recharging the battery before the return trip. Where will you do that? Also make sure you know what lights and signaling devices are required on a powered scoot in your area.
The capacity of the motor on your scoot may limit where you can legally ride it. Check the local regs about legal use of bike lanes, sidewalks, etc. Don't assume! Regulations for motorized vehicles vary quite a bit. A human-powered trike may be allowed on some of those routes but not an electric.
Check into insurance coverage too. You may need a specific rider on an existing auto policy. Tragic to find out after the fact.
You may feel you can safely operate the thing yourself, but you'll be at the mercy of cars. Motorcycle/bike riders can tell you just how poorly they fare in car traffic as it is. They are largely invisible even when drivers are attentive.
Last edited by Parnassia; 04-10-2024 at 07:02 PM..
19 years, before my husband died we only had one car. Several mornings l'd go to various places, return home, maybe do errands, especially to the hardware store ! There's bus service on the Olympic Peninsula, though rarely used it.
We had 2 cars while our daughter was growing up. For a time, my husband used a van pool to get to work. He would pay the driver x amount of money each month. Eventually, he changed jobs and the 2 cars came in handy.
After our daughter left home, we still had 2 cars. My husband got a job where he worked from home. Then our daughter asked us if we would sell the minivan to her. She said with her Dad working at home, we could get by with one car. We thought about it and told her we would drive the minivan out to where she was.
Since then, we've gotten by with one car. Our house was within walking distance to a great auto repair shop run by honest people. It was easy to drop off the car and walk home while it was being fixed.
Now we've downsized and are in a walkable area with good public transportation and still getting by with one car. As fate would have it, we have another decent place to get the car repaired that is walking distance away.
I know from other posts that money is not a factor for you so I would be safe and keep both cars. It’s too dangerous to be on a bike unless you’re on a trail.
We have two vehicles but much of the time they are both in the garage. Several times a week, one of us goes off alone in a vehicle. The majority of the time when one of us goes off alone, the other person remains home.
I am thinking about getting a road-worthy electric 3-wheel scooter so I can do local errands and getting rid of one of our cars. Has anyone done this and had regrets?
Re-thinking your situation:
Get a calendar: Mark on it how many times both cars were gone at the same time. At the end of the month, count how many times you needed both cars. Then figure out what trips were mandatory or if you could simply "schedule" the trips so they didn't happen at the same time. Following month, with your new schedule mark down how many times you needed that 2nd car. That will determine you need for a 2nd vehicle at all.
IMO an electric, 3 wheel scooter compares unfavorably with a small electric car. The latter is significantly safer and more versatile. I would prefer retaining two cars.
This reminds me of our family situation when I was a kid. Both parents worked, with 3 kids who eventually all learned to drive while living at home-only one car. This arrangement didn't seem to present any problems since my father enjoyed walking to work. Actually all of us could, and usually did, walk to work or school. It was nice.
There are far more cars per capita these days. Sometimes they seem like a blight on the neighborhood landscape to me. So, congratulations for having both cars in a garage rather than having one or two parked outside.
Sounds very dangerous to me. Is it really worth it....lots of crazy drivers out there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Threestep2
That is an accident waiting to happen.
That depends on where she lives. There are plenty of retiree or resort-type areas where people zip around all day on golf carts.
I wouldn't do it where I live. But many smaller coastal towns, contained/planned neighborhoods, etc, have access enough that I'd do it.
I might also consider it in a denser gridded city, where I could avoid busy roads. The neighborhood where I lived in Minneapolis offered this, though the weather wasn't always cooperative.
We have two vehicles but much of the time they are both in the garage. Several times a week, one of us goes off alone in a vehicle. The majority of the time when one of us goes off alone, the other person remains home.
I am thinking about getting a road-worthy electric 3-wheel scooter so I can do local errands and getting rid of one of our cars. Has anyone done this and had regrets?
We did the same thing last summer (except I got a gas trike). It worked pretty good at first, but the trike is definitely a good weather only option. Most of my trike trips were 15 minutes or so to the gym and back.
However, one day a week I go to the train station to ride to the office. I didn't like leaving the trike there all day, and in the winter I wasn't going to ride it there anyway. The train leaves at 6AM, so unless I was going to leave the car there all day (with my wife without a car) she would have to drop me off and then pick me up in the evening. That got old for both of us quickly.
Because my wife has some mobility issues, we'd been discussing getting a new car that would be easier for her to drive when she needed to (power everything) and now we're looking at getting her hand controls. The other car was already paid for, so instead of trading it in, we just kept it. So now I take the trike or the older car when I go on my own depending on the weather. She drives herself to most of her appointments, and when were together I drive 99% of the time in the new car.
Best if you can try several different modes and see what fits you.
Not every one is you and live in your area.
I have a truck, a car, a 3 wheel scooter, and an e-bike.
I live too far from town to use the E bike or scooter so I must drive my car or truck especially if I must do some shopping.
When I lived closer to town I loved riding my bike and in those days I could walk my bike through a store but that is not allowed any more.
The scooter is for running around the property and or putting in the car to go shopping. ( I made a crane for lifting the scooter in and out of the trunk of the car.)
I have knee and foot issues so its the wheeled or walking with a cane every where. Tough getting old.
4 wheeled scooters are fine but not as easy to get in and out of the trunk of the car.
Do your research on the 4 wheelers for the best climbing and battery life, and realize it's size moving through a store. this is the advantage of the small 3 wheelers.
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