Motor scooters gain in popularity

Scooter sales at his firm climbed 300 percent last year, and they increased 50 percent this past April alone, primarily because of high gasoline prices, he said.

“We sell to many teenage customers, college students, as well as people in bigger metro areas looking for more economic travel and parking options,” Turner said. “I would estimate that 50 percent of our customers buy scooters for primary transportation and 50 percent buy them as a toy.”

Ross Petersen, a motorcycle and scooter dealer in Pierre, said scooters have turned into a fashion statement for some teenagers.

“It’s kind of cool,” he said. “You’ll see a little group of them riding around together, and that feeds it.”

Small scooters, especially those made in China, Korea and Taiwan, sell for as little as $800-$900. Larger scooters, capable of legal highway speeds and more, can cost $4,000 to $6,000.

Scooters, while fun to drive, also can be dangerous. Other motorists often don’t notice the small two-wheelers, and that can land scooter drivers in the hospital — or the morgue.

Inexperienced and young scooter drivers should be especially careful, Petersen says.

“I see a lot of people driving scooters with shorts, flip flops, no helmet, two-up on a machine that shouldn’t ride two people,” he says. “Scooters are pretty small, and the headlight’s always on for safety, but sometimes people driving bigger vehicles don’t see them. We’ve all seen those drivers with a cell phone in one hand, a cigarette in the other. I don’t know how they can drive.”

Motor scooters are usually regulated by state laws as either motorcycles or mopeds. If classified as motorcycles, special licensing endorsements are required. Several states require young drivers to wear helmets, Mount says. As for liability insurance, some states require it and others don’t, he said.

While parking his scooter at an annual motorcycle rally that draws hundreds of thousands to Sturgis, S.D., Fred Hathaway said he uses his scooter to avoid traffic congestion. Hathaway, 70, a Dover, Del., silversmith who travels around the country to fix jewelry, said he finds it easier to ride a scooter than a motorcycle.

“This is a good-riding scooter,” Hathaway said. “I’ve got two plastic knees, and throwing them over the seat of a motorcycle doesn’t work for me.”

Mount says the median age of scooter owners is 46, but they have wide appeal to both young and old, males and females. One-fourth of scooter owners are women, he says.

“Scooters are an easy entree into the world of two-wheeling for many people and are less intimidating than motorcycles,” Mount says. “And if you’re getting 50 to 70 miles per gallon, that’s a lot better than pretty much any car you can buy.”

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