Spring Scooter Musings

Spring is here and, despite the bad weather we've had, it's time to get on my scooter. Trouble is I don't have a new battery. I left getting it until I got back from a short a trip and went to the store yesterday that is all things automotive in Canada, Canadian Tire. The guy at my local store looked at my old battery and said he doubted they'd have one but he did a computer search and found that although that store didn't have one in stock, several other stores did. Just in case, he called the next closest store and then the next one and the next one. The computer showed they had the battery in stock but they did not really have any on the shelf. So now I have to wait for one on order.

I took this experience as a sign of two things. One: batteries for scooters are still low on the priority of automotive shops in Canada - how I long for the streets of Vietnam yesterday where every street has a small shop with everything needed for scooters and small motorbikes.  Two: the fact the batteries supposedly on the shelves were not there meant people were buying them faster than the stores were changing their inventory list.

That's hardly a scientific survery but it looks like the world of scootering in Canada is making slow headway. Once again, though, I have to look elsewhere to see how quickly small two-wheeled vehicles are taking over the world. Spring brings stories of the rapid growth of scooters elsewhere. Take this story from India for instance where scooter sales are up more than 14 per cent.

http://www.zigwheels.com/news-features/news/twowheeler-sales-rise-290-per-cent-during-fy-201213/16099/2

And this one that shows two-wheeled vehicles outpacing cars.

http://postnoon.com/2013/04/08/bike-makers-optimistic-as-car-sales-plummet/118604

But I don't want to continue writing a blog that shows the expansion of scootering elsewhere and the increasing popularity here. (Just this week I was in the small town of Niagara-on-the-Lake and noticed how many locals were riding around on scooters including a nifty covered BMW scooter like the one in the picture below from the BMW website.)


BMW picture

While I will keep posting scooter news and accounts of my own experience I am more interested in exploring the notion of what two-wheeled vehicles are doing for people's mobility especially women's. Saudi Arabia may be a long way from letting women drive cars or motorcyle but I took the recent news that women will be allowed to ride bicycles for "recreation" a good sign. Women gained a lot of mobility (and freedom) more than one hundred years ago on this continent when they started riding bikes. More of this to come but here's an Aljazeera story about women and bicycles in Saudia Arabia:

http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/201304022007-0022651

Vintage Russian scooters

I know, I know. I said I wouldn't think about scooters during the Canadian winter but, even though I have to dig out from the worst snowstorm in Toronto in years, they're still on my mind. I couldn't resist sharing these photos of vintage Russian scooters. Wouldn't something like one of those be great for city errands?

http://www.vintag.es/2013/02/vintage-photos-of-soviet-scooters-and.html

Winter without a scooter

It's been such an unusual winter in Toronto this year that I wish I'd kept my scooter ready for a ride on those stunning days when the temperature reaches 10, 12 even 15 Celsius. On one Saturday in January when the temperature was 14 I took my battery off the charger and put it back in the scooter. Sadly, the battery is old and failing (I'm trying not to see any symbolism here) and wasn't strong enough to start the bike.

But I'd been watching scooters zip by me in the city for days, even on wretchedly cold ones and I wanted desperately to have a winter ride. I drove my car to Canadian Tire to see if they had a battery; they didn't have one in stock but directed me to a store further away that did. It all seemed crazy to me then: driving all over the city for a battery I'd probably use once and have to keep charged until spring so I did the sensible thing, drove home and finally put the cover over my scooter in the garage. Now it's out of sight and almost out of mind. On my list of why I don't like Canadians winters: ice, cold, darkness, I now add: being without my scooter.

While my scooter riding is in hiatus I'm putting this blog on blocks as well. I don't know if I will return to it. (I have other blogs in mind so stay tuned) But when I see a story like the one below I know I want to continue exploring the connection between women's mobility and their rights in the world. And I'd love to think about that while riding a scooter here and wherever I can get to this year.

So until spring...

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/01/07/womens_rights_hit_roadblock_in_indonesia.html

Scooters and International Day of the Girl

Thursday, October 11th, was the first International Day of the Girl. It's a day meant to promote equal treatment for girls around the world, whether it's in education or health or marriage. This year's campaign focused on the huge number of girls who are forced to marry when they are as young as eight. There are some powerful pictures online of child brides.

I don't know how far these international days can go to improve situations, but this one came in a bad week for girls. In Pakistan, there was the obscene case of the Taliban shooting a 14-year-old girl, Malala Youafzai, just because she had become an advocate for girls' education and dreamt of becoming a doctor. In Canada, where girls have made great strides in schools, there was the horribly sad apparent suicide of 15-year-old Amanda Todd who went through years of stalking and tortuous bullying in the Facebook age before putting her story on you-tube last year.

If anything, those stories do highlight the need for such an international day. But, okay, I write a blog about scooters. And how could I possibly tie those stories to my subject? As an ESL teacher, I talk to my students a lot about using transitions in their writing. But no transitional word or phrase seems adequate to the task of connecting scooters to the tragic stories of girls' lives thwarted. HOWEVER...

However, just so you don't think it's all bad news out there for girls, I'm posting this story from India, which has its share of stories about child brides, unequal opportunities for education and abuse. It's a story about girls, scooters and the International Day of the Girl. And yes, there's a marketing angle to the story. It may seem frivolous, even tasteless to bring up this story in the same context as the others. These are middle-class girls from families who can afford scooters tasting independence. But my hope is that girls like these ones learn from that experience of independence and go on to become policy makers who bring other less-fortunate girls along with them. And one has to find hope where one can.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/10/11/International-Day-of-the-Girl-Riding-to-independence-on-scooters/PC-8731349968380/?spt=hs&or=tn

My Micro-Mobility Model

Turns out I don't ride a scooter so much as a "micro-mobility model," and I'm part of a trend away from traditional cars. I don't fit the demographic (Gen Y urbanites) and my scooter doesn't quite fit the model (no combustion engines) but I am on the right curve. Small is the new beautiful.

The global research company Frost & Sullivan defines micro-mobility models as electric bikes, cars without doors and pod cars. (Those are basically private cars that run on tracks above a city; they have some at Heathrow Airport). But the general idea is models that are small and cheaper to buy and cheaper to run than automobilies. The Frost & Sullivan study predicts that 150 new products that match the micro-mobility model will be introduced by 2020. The authors do warn that two things could dampen the growth of these models: a slow build-up of electric vehicle infrastructure and increased spending on public transportation.

There's no evidence that an electric vehicle infrastructure is building up in Canada and no sign in my city that there's a boon ahead for public transportation.  A scooter powered by the small amount of gasoline it needs still makes sense as part of this future picture in my part of the world.

This got me thinking about why the trend is happening. There are obvious answers, of course, like high energy costs and the lower buying power of many young people today. At a conference in San Francisco last month, a venture capitalist named Steve Jurvetson of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, came up with a suprising conjecture. He said that one of the tipping points (a phrase he borrowed from Malcolm Gladwell) for the increased sales of electric bikes, scooters and motorcycles was SARS. According to his theory, the contagious and deadly disease created a fear in the Chinese population of riding on buses and other forms of public transportation so electric bikes and other two-wheeled motorized vehicles became a reasonable alternative. The need increase in production led to a broader increase in popularity.

I think in any debate on the future size of vehicles we have to consider how we are going to use them. What is needed for high-speed highway driving - where larger vehicles may be needed for safety - is not the same thing as what's needed for city streets. I haven't figure out how to get to my work that's some distance out of town on a small vehicle. But what if we could figure out other ways to get people to the edges of cities where they could then get in their micro-mobility models.

I had a glimpse of a future that seemed pretty damned exciting years ago when I directed a TV piece on Canadian-born Paul Moller who has spent the better part of his adult life trying to develop a flying car: the Skycar. The prototype works; it lifts up like a helicopter and is steered by a computer. Moller didn't see skycars as urban transportation but as a way to get from the country to the city or from city to city - avoiding highways altogether - where riders would switch to small electric cars (and, in my mind, scooters) and use those to get around town. Maybe that seems too much like science fiction - think Bladerunner and Fifth Element, but using micro-mobility models in town makes so much sense. Think of all the parking lots that could be halved in size; think of city smog alerts as a rare summer occurrence.

The Joy of Mobility

The true pleasure of riding a two-wheeled vehicle is the deep sense of mobility it offers. Driving generally makes me feel free: I am going where I want to go and, when it's a holiday drive, moving in the direction and at the pace I want to go. But a car only connects me visually to the landscapes and cityscapes I'm driving through. On a scooter, I smell the pizza shop at the corner, the flowers in a garden or the rotting food on the days when the green bins sit on the curb. On a scooter, I hear the radio in the car beside me and the conversation on the sidewalk. On a scooter, I feel the sun, the rain and most of all, definitely most of all, the wind. As each sensation comes and goes I am constantly reminded of the movement of my body on the scooter. And although I don't usually dwell on this, the risk of riding a scooter in traffic, the knowledge that my mobility could be destroyed by a wrong decision on my part or an idiotic move on someone else's part adds to my appreciation of the fragility of mobility and my responsibility for doing all I can to safeguard it.

Mobility  - moving easily and freely - is important to me and I do know how lucky I am to be able to enjoy it. I remember how my daughter screamed each time she was fastened in a car seat as a toddler. I related to the constriction she felt even though I was the enforcer. I also remember exactly how I felt the first time I left the Dadaab Refugee Camps in Kenya after witnessing the lives of refugees who had been stuck in the camps for almost twenty years. When the plane taking me away from the camp took off I felt such relief - and such guilt - at my ability to move. And I just have to hear the roar of a motorcycle to take me back to a time when I felt stuck as a teenager at the dining table when the boys in town were out on the roads moving at their own free will.

I've been thinking about mobility a lot lately because I've been riding my scooter back and forth to first a hospital and now a rehab centre where my husband is recovering from an operation to return mobility to a hip and leg (his story to tell, which I'm sure he will). As I watch him learn how to move about without putting weight on one leg, how to manage the simple steps of life that those without injuries or illness take for granted, I am both awed at how he copes and aware how difficult I would find the situation.

Yesterday, riding my scooter to see him I realized I was not enjoying my ride. In fact, I was so preoccupied by so many things that I was almost unaware of my own movement. Then, when I turned on a street that was nearly empty and downhill I felt the wind slap my face as I picked up speed, forcing me to pay attention. It was a wonderful moment.  I actually felt my eyes closing to savour the moment. Then I laughed at the ridiculousness of my reaction and I became aware of my movement again.

My husband and a friend with a bad knee used to have an inside joke; they described those without mobility problems as TABs or Temporarily Able Bodied. We are all TABS and those of lucky enough to enjoy free movement should be grateful.

--
To follow up on my post about trying to use my scooter as a beast of burden, here's a stair basket I found on wonderful Spadina Avenue in Toronto. It's perfect for carrying odd-shaped, light packages - keep the heavy items for under the seat or the backpack. Make sure to balance things properly.

You know scooters are getting popular when...

I'm pretty lucky really. I've had my scooter for about seven years now and, other than fearing I'd lost it to the businessman who was supposed to store it safely one winter, I've never encountered a scooter thief. I do take some precautions, like locking the steering whenever I park the bike and storing it out of site at home. I have even used a U bolt on the back tire when I parked it outside my workplace, knowing that all locks can be broken but also knowing it would take a thief some time to take it apart on a busy Toronto street. But I have done stupid things too, like forgetting my keys in the ignition. In fact, one day I left my scooter the whole working day on that same busy street with the key in the ignition attached to an inviting blue key chain. I thanked the Scooter Gods that day.

When any product becomes popular with consumers, it becomes attractive to thieves. It has ever thus been so. - Think of the stories of copper rooves being torn off churches in England as the price of the metal rises - Motorcycles and scooters are no exception; in fact, they are easy targets. They are small enough that they can be carted away by a group of burly thieves and mechanically simple enough to be tampered with by a smart one who can roll it away. Stories about scooter thefts turn up around the world. The police in Delhi, India just arrested a gang who had been stealing scooters and selling them at junk markets. They caught another thief last week after noticing a crowd chasing a man through the streets. He had just tried to steal a scooter using a master key, something he is alleged to have done before. But it's not just in India; police in Australia, Great Britain report higher rates of scooter theft. One of the saddest stories of late came from England. Ricky made what living he could in a depressed economy delivering fast food on his scooter. It was stolen outside a friend's house and now Ricky can't work.

The United States is no exception. In Florida, Cpl Doug White of the Hillsborough Country Sheriff's Office reported that although his county has seen "almost a double-digit decrease in crime in the last few years," it has witnessed a 10 percent increase in motorcycle and scooter thefts in the first half of this year. "These scooter are an economical way for families to get around," he said.

There's even an on line site where U.S. riders register their stolen scooter: http://scoot.net/stolen/  .

So how easily is it done? According to the police from Hillsborough County it doesn't help when people leave the keys in the ignition (whoops), don't lock their steering mechanism, or leave their scooters in their garages with the doors open (think I've done that too.)

But some thiefs will just break the steering mechanism.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN9RqQBPxJk Watch a thief try to do that. He doesn't manage it but did cause extensive damage to the scooter.

Atlanta police released this video of scooter thieves in action. It takes a while to see what they are doing and it's hard to tell how they got the scooter or whether it was locked, but they did roll it away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_3futDKypM

So what can be done? The Annapolis police have created a Scooter Watch Theft Protection Plan. It involves decals that are applied to the front and the rear of the scooter which means riders are willing to be stopped by police to prove ownership.

http://www.annapolis.gov/Government/Departments/PoliceDepartment/CommunityConnection/ScooterWatch.aspx

If you don't mind being stopped by police, it's not a bad idea. But there are other ways to decrease the risk of having your scooter stolen - beyond the simple ones like taking your key with you, locking your steering if you can and keeping your scooter out of site at home. The site Safe Rider recommends securing your scooter to something fixed with chains, or using U bolts and disc locks. It also suggests marking as many parts of the bike as you can to make it less attractive to thieves for resale. This, it suggests, can be done with ultra violet pens.

Other sites recommend alarms, some that go off if the scooter is tilted, some that are attached to the disc brakes.

I eventually stopped using my U lock. It took time to put it on and off and I got complacent. I guess every scooter rider has to assess the risk of every situation. The extra precautions may take some of the fun out of scootering but could mean you'll be doing it longer.