Parking Redux

It seems each spring the same issues about two-wheeled vehicles come around. Last May, I wrote about battles, particularly in Vancouver, over where riders could park their scooters and motorcycles. (A Place to Park)

This year it's Toronto's turn to reassess where scooters can be parked. For the past few years, the city has been a parking delight full of easy choices. If I wanted to I could park my scooter on any street without paying a fee. If I wanted to I could park my scooter on the sidewalk and not be ticketed. I often chose the sidewalk option for two reasons: I wasn't taking up valuable street parking and I didn't have to worry that an automobilist might not see the scooter in his rear-view window before backing up.

I never parked my scooter on the sidewalk in a way that could block pedestrians or access routes. Nor did I ever see any other scooter obstructing pathways. Yet last week, during Canada Road Safety Week, Toronto police launched a blitz of ticketing called the "Sidewalk/Boulevard Parking Campaign." Apparently, there has been a bylaw on the books saying two-wheeled vehicles can't park on sidewalks. Apparently, Toronto police decided it was time to enforce that bylaw.

So early in the week, riders came out of offices and stores in downtown Toronto to find a yellow $60 parking ticket in their handlebars.

For those of you in countries like Italy and Vietnam the campaign may be hard to understand.
I took this picture in Bologna, Italy, a few years back.

Copywright: Debi Goodwin

The scooters filled a square and the surrounding sidewalks and no one seemed concerned.

This one is from Ho Chi Minh city where scooters often do impede pedestrians.

Copywright: Debi Goodwin

The picture's from outside a market where riders parked where ever they felt like. But, then, so did carts and trucks and, again, no one seemed to mind. In the city centre there is often nowhere else to park except on the sidewalks and the business savvy of the city has responded to that fact.

Clever entrepreneurs charge riders a small amount to leave their scooters and motorcycles in front of their shops and restaurants. They line up the bikes so they're almost touching and pedestrians can just make it past them.

At the end of last week I rode my scooter in downtown Toronto for the first time since the crackdown and, from what I saw, the police had won the day. I still saw scooters on sidewalks but they were on the sidewalks of small streets or streets away from the business centre. But downtown, riders had taken over street parking spots, parking five or six to a spot. I found it hard to find a place to park and, as I finally backed into one next to four bikes and way too close to a parked car for my comfort, several bikes cruised up and down the street looking for spots.

The campaign, at least, will have the effect, I hope of making motorists aware of scooters on the street. But the results - at least on the street I parked on - seemed ludicrous. The sidewalks were wide, smooth and empty. And now they are unsoiled by two-wheeled vehicles.  When I grew up people used to refer to the city as "Toronto The Good." It's definitely aiming for "Toronto The Orderly."

 

Copywright: Debi Goodwin (squished i-pod pictures)

There are, no doubt, confusing and real problems being created by the changing mix of vehicles on Toronto roads. There are more scooters downtown and there are slower electric scooters and motorised bikes, whose riders stick to the curb and travel in bike lanes. I just never noticed that parking on the sidewalk was one of those problems.

India looks to get more men on scooters

Yesterday, riding through the streets of Toronto, I saw more scooters than motorcycles and that makes sense to me. In city traffic, the automatic controls of scooters make all the stops and starts so much easier. In Asian cities there's a true mix of scooters and motorcycles, but that's because motorcycles are made small with smaller engines. Big bikes, like the kind that are popular in North America, are made for the open roads.

What did surprise me was that every scooter I saw yesterday was driven by a man. That got me thinking about India and the heavy promotion of scooters to girls. I've written about this before, but it still fascinates me. (see post, "Marketing to Scooter Girl," and "The Expanding Indian Market in May, 2012.)

Take TVS, the third largest maker of motorcycles, scooters and mopeds. Their numbers show the two-wheeler market may be stalling. All the numbers for their different products were down slightly in April, 2013 from April, 2012.

TVS has three models of scooters: the Wego, Scooty Streak, and Scooty Pep+. The Scooty Pep+ is clearly marketed to young women with its colours and its message that girls just want to have fun...and they can, along with careers and independence.

TVS  ad

In the Scooty Pep+ ad below that includes taking a fun ride to your job as a doctor...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAv4A-g4gsI

and challenging tradition...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JBc-TirhsA

TVS's other scooters, Wego scooter and Scooty Streak are described as "unisex scooters" by salesmen, but their ads still show attractive young women riding them. So TVS may have shot itself in the foot, playing into the belief that scooter are for "sissies," certainly not for men. On "Yahoo answers," I read a discussion on what scooters work for men in India. Only two were sited: a Vespa and the Honda Aviator.

But here's why I love this story again. There have been "spys" who report that TVS is testing a scooter for males on the streets of Chennai. I've included a link to one of the stories I found because I laughed out loud at the sight of the "male-specific" scooter in camouflage. What are they hiding under there? Is this all just another publicity stint to bring Indian men into the scooter fold? (The pictures are from the story below.)

I

 

Not to be undone, Yamaha, which has launched the 'Ray" for woman  (with an odd 113 cc engine size) in India is now coming out with a 125cc scooter for Indian males sometime this year. The speculation is it will be bigger with a stronger suspension. I suspect it won't come in pink.

Roman Holiday

Just saw the old film Roman Holiday today at a local theatre that was screening Hollywood classics. Ever since I bought a postcard in Rome for vacances romane  a few years back I've been wanting to see the movie just to watch Audrey Hepburn swooping around the Coliseum on a Vespa driven by Gregroy Peck. The movie did not disappoint in the charm department, but in my opinion, director William Wyler didn't devote enough time to the scooter ride. Still, since the movie dates from 1953 it was fun to watch the first Vespas on the streets of Rome. They were few and far between compared to the numbers that pack the streets today.



In publicity photos like the one below, the Vespa appears to get equal billing with the stars, which was great news for the brand. Since Piaggio's Vespa, with its handle-bar controls, was relatively new when the movie came out  - it was only about seven years old -  the publicity gave the company and scooters a Hollywood boost. Roman Holiday is credited with increasing the sale of Vespas by 100,000.



For those of you who don't know Roman Holiday, it's the story of a bored princess from some unnamed European country who escapes the confines of her role to experience the simple joys of life. Gregory Peck plays a journalist determined to show her the pleasures of Rome while gaining an exclusive story along the way. What better symbol for the joy of new-found freedom, of increased mobility than a scooter. It was a brilliant choice on Wyler's part.

I hadn't seen the photo below before seeing the movie. The glee on Audrey Hepburn's face when she inadvertently took control of the scooter and rode madly for a few crazy moments was priceless, even if the scene became a slapstick one of inept riding. But to the director's credit, he didn't have Hepburn panic and hand back the controls to Gregory Peck who hops on the back. Maybe I'm overstating it here but to me, at that moment, the character looking for escape learned a valuable lesson in taking charge of her own destiny.

 All photos are publicity shots available widely on the web

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