A scooter commuter hits the road

They offer a response to congested traffic, and are gaining popularity fast in the busy city

May 02, 2008

Special to the Star

At the gas station, the guy filling up his Dodge pickup truck and lawn mower eyed the fire-engine red Vespa I was pumping gas into, squinted and asked, "How much does it cost to insure that thing?"

"About $500 for the year," I said, trying my best not to overfill the scooter's 8.7-litre gas tank.

"Can't argue with that, now, can you?" he said.

"And here's the best part," I called back, with a big grin.

"I get to pay for my fill-up with this" – and held up a toonie.

Smug comebacks aside, there's certainly a convincing economic argument for using a small-engined scooter to get around this city as gasoline heads north of $1.20 a litre.

After almost 50 kilometres of stop-and-go commuting across town on a 150 cc Vespa S, for example, it cost me $2.06 to top up the tank.

That works out to a fuel consumption rating of about 3.4 L/100 km without even trying.

It's an argument an increasing number of Canadians find convincing, judging by recent sales figures.

In 2002, there were 3,761 scooters sold in the country, according to the Motorcycle and Moped Industry Council, the leading industry lobby group.

Those annual sales grew by 30 per cent each year – to 9,347 in 2006, easing off slightly in 2007. Those figures don't even include the sales of models from non-MMIC manufacturers from China and Korea that have multiplied in recent years.

But gas savings can't be the only reason for scooters' recent popularity. If stinginess was your main reason for existence, you'd take public transit, bike or walk everywhere.

So what's the appeal? We'll try to answer that question in this column, which will focus on the more compact means of getting around Canada's largest urban centre.

Though it will mainly be about scooters, we'll also try such alternative forms as electric bikes, some of the smallest four-wheelers around and maybe even the occasional pedal-powered machine.

After all, an air conditioned, spacious four-wheeler or beefy motorcycle might be ideal for getting to and from your job if you live outside Toronto proper.

But it's a different world if you live and work inside a city's limits. The streets are narrower, the room to manoeuvre all but non-existent and parking spaces command a hefty premium.

The simple truth is that scooters combine frugality with ease of use and are just plain fun.

And since 2005, scooters, like motorcycles, have been able to park for free in designated on-street parking areas in Toronto.

Hardcore motorcycle riders may sneer at the automatic transmission, as well as its toy-like step-through design. But the design is considerably more comfortable in stop-and-go traffic than straddling a sportbike or gigantic cruiser.

It's also way more relaxing in heavy traffic to simply twist the throttle and concentrate on the ride, instead of constantly banging through a motorbike's gears as you inevitably hit one red light after another.

In fact, that ease of use accounts for a large part of scooters' appeal – especially to an older demographic.

"People want something simple," says Costa Mouzouris, Montreal-based editor of Cycle Canada magazine.

"They may have once ridden a motorcycle and want to get back into riding a two-wheeler but feel intimidated by having to shift."

Besides, how often do you get above second or third gear on your sportbike when the traffic's heavy anyway?

"Scooter people are typically not motorcycle people – there is very little transference between the two," says Warren Milner, senior manager for motorcycles at Honda Canada, whose company sells scooters as well as motorbikes.

"Motorcycle people are driven more by image and scooter people are more driven by function."

Style and image also play a big role for scooterists. But those that ride smaller scooters are not about to buy their way into the Harley Owners Group any time soon.

"The kid who's 16 who goes out and buys a scooter is usually going to graduate to a Honda Civic – not a motorcycle," agrees Mouzouris.

No wonder the smaller displacement scooters appeal to younger drivers. Not just cheap to put fuel in, they are also cheaper to insure.

A 125 cc model can cost roughly $500 a year to insure, compared with two to four times more for a motorbike (depending on your age and experience and size of engine).

And you can do this while retaining a sense of style that motorcyclists and car drivers can only dream of.

Do enough poking around on the Internet and you can find pictures of Audrey Hepburn, Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow and Leonardo DiCaprio astride a pint-sized two-wheeler.

There are, of course, downsides to scooters. In Ontario, you need a full motorcycle licence to ride a scooter bigger than 50 cc. You can get a restricted M class licence to ride 50 cc engines and smaller, but then you're severely restricted as to which roads you'll be fast enough to ride on safely.

As with motorbikes, you can't filter through stopped traffic at stoplights, so even though some on city council might see scooters as a solution to the GTA's congestion woes, a traffic jam is still a traffic jam – even on a 50 cc Yamaha BW50.

And whether you ride a 150 cc scooter or a litre sportbike, there is no antidote for the months of January through to March.

Winter in Toronto is the great leveler – no matter what two-wheeler you ride when it's warm, we all end up riding the TTC.

Toronto Star