First One; Now Seven

Just a few weeks ago, I was the only employee of my company commuting by scooter on a regular basis. This morning, I see six parked directly outside the main office with at least one other down at the south building.

To be fair, several folks here have ridden periodically to work by scooter over the years, but it seems to me that a combination of higher gasoline prices and a decreasing number of available parking stalls during reconstruction of our parking lot (see the equipment in the background) has led to much more regular scooter ridership.

Additionally, I see many scoots all over town, though only a very few on the connector roads between communities here in the valley. The recent influx of cheap Chinese scoots has undoubtedly help fuel the growth, as the vast majority of scooters seem to be these no-name brands. I only hope that when the low-end bikes inevitable fail that the riders won't simply give up on scooters as a whole, but will purchase quality Italian, Japanese, or even Taiwanese replacements.