Southern Florida

Gnslngr

Gnslngr

New member
Just got back from southeast Florida (Boca, Palm Beach, etc) and I never saw as many scooters in an area in the United States as I did there. It wasn't European city heavy, but I'd venture to say there was about 1 scooter for every thirty vehicles. Certainly I saw more scooters than motorcycles. Why are people so much smarter in this area than in other places in the us of a?
 
Gnslngr

Gnslngr

New member
SteveADV said:
Rentals? Did a lot of them look like under 50cc?
Click to expand...

Great question. No rentals if you mean by that scooters with the rental store's name on them. But there seemed to be quite a few individually owned 50 cc on Singer Island (maximum speed: 35), and I saw a 50cc Vespa on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach. And while some were Vespas, most were Chinese with a few Hondas thrown in. As I think about it, in the downtown areas there were a good many 50cc bikes and there were T-Maxes, Burgmans and other maxis on 95 and on the 40 to 55 mph roads. I saw not a single BMW scooter (but almost every motorcycle seemed to be a Beemer) during the whole time I was there. The last one I saw was a great looking vintage Lambretta. Left a great picture in my mind as I boarded the plane home.
 
Last edited:
W

wsteele

New member
Gnslngr said:
Yup. But I've long known that scooters are popular on foreign islands, in Asia and in Europe. But this was the first time I saw so many in an area in the United States.
Click to expand...
Go to Ket West most of the locals drive scooters and when you add in the tourist it can be a real mad house, to get a parking space on the main roads there is very hard if you have a car or you have to park in a lot which can get expensive and they love to give out tickets there,I have got few tickets when I have been there with a scooter, if I remember it was about $25.00 per ticket for a parking meter time violation.
 
Gnslngr

Gnslngr

New member
wsteele said:
Go to Ket West most of the locals drive scooters and when you add in the tourist it can be a real mad house, to get a parking space on the main roads there is very hard if you have a car or you have to park in a lot which can get expensive and they love to give out tickets there,I have got few tickets when I have been there with a scooter, if I remember it was about $25.00 per ticket for a parking meter time violation.
Click to expand...

But the point is that this was not on an isolated island. It was in an American urban area where you wouldn't expect it.
 
E

Edumakated

New member
Gnslngr said:
Just got back from southeast Florida (Boca, Palm Beach, etc) and I never saw as many scooters in an area in the United States as I did there. It wasn't European city heavy, but I'd venture to say there was about 1 scooter for every thirty vehicles. Certainly I saw more scooters than motorcycles. Why are people so much smarter in this area than in other places in the us of a?
Click to expand...

Until the inconvenience of driving exceeds the benefits of riding a PTW, most people are just going to drive. Yeah, a few of us are trendsetters, but most people are lemmings and not risk takers. They can't see the big picture. I've always maintained that if urban cities really wanted to get people out of cars, the easiest thing to do is making riding scooters and motorcycles exponentially advantageous over driving a car. For example, something like free street parking for bikes would be HUGE in Chicago and make a lot of people get out of their cars, particularly when parking can cost you $200/month or more. Make filtering / lane splitting legal. When cagers see bikers able to shoot to the front and save some real time, again, it makes riding a scoot that much more advantageous.

Right now, I ride because I enjoy it not because there is any real advantage over just driving other than saving a little on gas.
 
JaimeC

JaimeC

New member
We are also allowed in the HOV lanes throughout the United States. Even if we can't split lanes, this does make a HUGE difference in my daily commute. Federal law says if the States get any Federal assistance for maintaining a specific thoroughfare, then they MUST allow motorcycles in the HOV lanes unless they can prove in court that doing so constitutes a safety hazard. Failing to comply will result in the forfeiture of that Federal assistance.

New York City tried for YEARS to keep motorcycles out of their HOV lanes, but were never able to prove that they created a safety hazard and they finally relented. That's because one rider (a woman) refused to simply pay the ticket she received and went to court, and when she lost, she appealed... over and over. Most people don't have that kind of tenacity but it paid off for ALL motorcyclists in the area. I just wish I hadn't lost the article that named her. Buying her dinner is the least I could do.
 
E

Edumakated

New member
JaimeC said:
We are also allowed in the HOV lanes throughout the United States. Even if we can't split lanes, this does make a HUGE difference in my daily commute. Federal law says if the States get any Federal assistance for maintaining a specific thoroughfare, then they MUST allow motorcycles in the HOV lanes unless they can prove in court that doing so constitutes a safety hazard. Failing to comply will result in the forfeiture of that Federal assistance.

New York City tried for YEARS to keep motorcycles out of their HOV lanes, but were never able to prove that they created a safety hazard and they finally relented. That's because one rider (a woman) refused to simply pay the ticket she received and went to court, and when she lost, she appealed... over and over. Most people don't have that kind of tenacity but it paid off for ALL motorcyclists in the area. I just wish I hadn't lost the article that named her. Buying her dinner is the least I could do.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, no HOV lanes here in IL. They generally seem to be a waste from my experience in GA as few cars were using them, but then again, I wasn't on a motorcycle then as I'm sure I would have appreciated them more.
 
TwoPort

TwoPort

Member
JaimeC said:
We are also allowed in the HOV lanes throughout the United States. Even if we can't split lanes, this does make a HUGE difference in my daily commute. .
Click to expand...

I always thought HOV lanes are an improvement for safety because I can get out of the middle of the crazy car snarl of traffic. But even the HOV lanes often get clogged as well and its back to lane splitting on the "interstate 80 parking lot" or some other slab. At least the HOV lane folks are not waiting to dart back into slower traffic.

For me lane splitting is the best perk of a motorcycle when I'm in the often congested California city traffic. It allows a whole different perspective of travel time. I'm amazed at the terrible traffic around Napa - as well as my ability to basically cut through it. We go places on the bike we'd never consider in the car because of traffic.

And with apologizes, I also have to say it's 70 degrees and sunny today. I'm just about to go out for a ride...
 
JaimeC

JaimeC

New member
Yeah, here on Long Island at least, the HOV lane is only a single lane. All you need is some knucklehead who thinks the HOV lane is there to allow them to go SLOWER than the main traffic lanes and you're trapped until you get to an exit. This happens far too often and I'm afraid I am guilty of using the shoulder to pass these ***holes. I did get stopped by an unmarked police car too. I just got a stern "talking to," but no ticket. The trooper was also a rider and understood my frustration, but "the law is the law."
 
Gnslngr

Gnslngr

New member
Edumakated said:
Until the inconvenience of driving exceeds the benefits of riding a PTW, most people are just going to drive. Yeah, a few of us are trendsetters, but most people are lemmings and not risk takers. They can't see the big picture. I've always maintained that if urban cities really wanted to get people out of cars, the easiest thing to do is making riding scooters and motorcycles exponentially advantageous over driving a car. For example, something like free street parking for bikes would be HUGE in Chicago and make a lot of people get out of their cars, particularly when parking can cost you $200/month or more. Make filtering / lane splitting legal. When cagers see bikers able to shoot to the front and save some real time, again, it makes riding a scoot that much more advantageous.

Right now, I ride because I enjoy it not because there is any real advantage over just driving other than saving a little on gas.
Click to expand...

This is well said. Illinois will never allow us to split lanes, but there is an alderman that wants motorcycles and scooters to have free or lower cost parking. The mayor is with him but only because he's trying to screw the corporation that bought all of our meters.
 
Gnslngr

Gnslngr

New member
JaimeC said:
We are also allowed in the HOV lanes throughout the United States. Even if we can't split lanes, this does make a HUGE difference in my daily commute. Federal law says if the States get any Federal assistance for maintaining a specific thoroughfare, then they MUST allow motorcycles in the HOV lanes unless they can prove in court that doing so constitutes a safety hazard. Failing to comply will result in the forfeiture of that Federal assistance.

New York City tried for YEARS to keep motorcycles out of their HOV lanes, but were never able to prove that they created a safety hazard and they finally relented. That's because one rider (a woman) refused to simply pay the ticket she received and went to court, and when she lost, she appealed... over and over. Most people don't have that kind of tenacity but it paid off for ALL motorcyclists in the area. I just wish I hadn't lost the article that named her. Buying her dinner is the least I could do.
Click to expand...

You, sir, are a fount of knowledge. This was very interesting. Thank you.
 
JaimeC

JaimeC

New member
An addendum to that posting is that so far, NO State, City, County or other municipality has been able to prove motorcycles in the HOV lanes constitute a safety hazard...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
✖
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

I've Disabled AdBlock
No Thanks