Recently, I spent a month in Valencia, Spain, so I had lots of time to use all sorts of filters to decide what kind of city it was. The scooter proved as reliable a filter as any. Valencia is a conservative city - its religious festivals and politics demonstrate that. But it has a thriving arts scene and local artisanal wines and beers; there's evidence of some hipster and creative types here.
And there's beauty in Valencia, in the riverbed parkland, in the architecture of the modern City of the Arts and the old city with its narrow lane ways and high wooden doors. Artfully parked scooters enhance that beauty. But then beauty might just be in the eye of a this beholder.
On the streets, cars - mostly small, non-flashy cars - heavily outnumber scooters and motorcycles even though the city has a climate favourable to two-wheeled vehicles, reflecting the city's conservative nature. Generally, I would say only about ten to fifteen per cent of the vehicles I saw were two-wheeled and of those somewhere between eighty to ninety per cent were scooters. There were hardly any large motorcycles to be seen.
Despite the low number, however, the scooters seemed a natural, accepted part of the city's traffic. Drivers appeared to accept their presence and accommodate their moves. And the city made it easy for them to park. At the mall with the Carrefour near the City of Arts, there is special free parking for two wheeled-vehicles with lines and a rack to support the front wheels.
What got me the most was how neat everything was in Valencia. We were there during The Fallas, the end of winter festival. Throughout the day and long into the night people ate on the street, dropping beer cans and food wrappers everywhere. While they waited to watch firecrackers or parades they often ate sunflower seeds leaving piles of shells behind. But by first light, the street-cleaning machines and the sweepers were out removing all evidence of the litterers. Even in the chaos of a wild street festival, the sense of order remained. That too was reflected by the city's scooters. I have never seen such precision parking, such even lines of scooters all facing the same way and parked in exactly the same way.
Scooters may not be a scientific way to analyze a city but it's a fun way and one that reveals some definite municipal characteristics.
Oh, and although I didn't have as much time in Madrid, I did notice that the local police used scooters. Perhaps if our police used them in Toronto scooters would get more respect here.
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On another note, I've been absent for too long but the winter in Toronto has gone on too long. Now that it's scooter season, I'll be back here more.
