Scooter cabs

Great story out of Egypt about a company, called Cabi, that uses motorcycles and scooters as taxis in the congested streets of Alexandria. When I first read the story my immediate response was cabs like that would be difficult for women in a country where women have to be careful on the streets. But I was heartened to see in the video that the vehicles are built with a separation between rider and passenger and more heartened to read that there's talk of female riders so women can feel comfortable with a quicker way through traffic. Seems like an idea that could be transplanted to other large cities.

http://www.africanews.com/2016/07/12/egypt-motorcycle-taxis-provide-faster-option-through-congested-traffic/

Happy Birthday Vespa

Photo: Debi Goodwin.  First Vespa at the Piaggo Factory 

The Vespa is seventy years old this year. The post-war creation that sparked a romance with two wheels and a host of knockoffs now comes in a dozen models from the basic to the luxury version that bears the Armani name and all the elegance that implies.

I drive one of the"knockoffs," a Yamaha that tries to sound Italian with its label Vino, as if I'd drink and drive. I can't complain about my scooter. It's held up well but I've always been in sway of the Vespa and promised myself that if I achieved a significant benchmark, I'd reward myself with one. I don't know if I will ever buy another scooter but, if I do, I will succumb to the mythology that is Vespa, a mythology, that in my mind, comes with loaves of bread in the back and turns down narrow, ancient Italian streets with the wind moving through my hair a la Audrey Hepburn.

That mythology, like any fantasy, is of course far from the practical legacy of the Vespa: a world of two-wheeled commuters, of affordable transportation for millions around the world, especially in south-east Asia and India.

And a world where women gained more freedom of movement. At the Piaggio Factory in Pontadera, Italy the women who work in the gift shop, museum and on the factory floor take pride in that history. The creator of the Vespa, Enrico Piaggio, not only had a policy of hiring women in his factory but his intention in designing the prototype was to make a vehicle they could ride in a county where women had just got the vote.

Photo:Debi Goodwin. Vespa prototype at the Piaggio Factory 

The early advertisements for Vespa reflected both that intention and the feelings of freedom that two wheels offered, especially to women.

But while the Vespa has created a tradition of affordable transportation it also left a legacy of air pollution in cities like Delhi and Ho Chi Minh City where scooters outnumber cars and come close to matching the population. In China, the switch to cleaner electric scooters has happened because of regulations to battle smog. But in other places, riders aren't ready to give up on their aging gas-powered scooters.

Piaggio has been introducing greener scooters - both hybrid and electric -  but I've seen no evidence they are catching on. Wouldn't it be great if the company could create a sustainable scooter with the same cache and slew of copycats that the original Vespa? Now that would be a scooter I'd buy.

Breathing Easier in New Delhi

We're used to the pictures of pollution in Beijing where masked people can barely see their way through the streets. But the situation in the Indian capital is far worse, three times worse. It's air is now the most polluted in the world.

So, in New Delhi, on New Year's day they started a two-week experiment, keeping cars off the road on an every-other-day basis to combat air pollution. There are several exemptions to the rule including two-wheeled vehicles. Some say  motorcycles and scooters weren't included even though older two-stroke scooters have been described as "super polluters," because there would be too many people for the public transit system to handle.

Now, I like to think of scooters and motorcycles as healthier choices for the environment than cars but the research proves me wrong. And  the New Delhi experiment is telling. While cars account for 22 per cent of the particulate matter in the city's air, two-wheeled vehicles account for 32 per cent, according to a study by the Centre for Science and Environment. (Trucks account for 28 per cent.) But the number that's most startling is that public buses only account for 4 per cent of the particulate manner.

I'm a fan of two-wheelers but it's hard not to argue that buses - or other forms of public transit - make the best choice for the environment in congested cities like New Delhi. And that poorly maintained old technology gas-powered scooters and motorcycles are as much as a problem as cars. China has already restricted their use giving a boom to the development of electric vehicles. Maybe it's time India consider the same measures.

One entrepreneur at least, a woman, is ready. She's introducing electric scooters to the commuter market.