This mode of transportation may rival the expenses incurred by somebody who chooses SOV* transportation in a Hummer H2 or big ol' pickup truck.
Here's the formula:
- Buy a high-MPG scooter to minimize the impact of $4 gas ($2500 or $3000, maybe?)
- Ride it over the course of the summer, maybe 2000 miles. Indeed, it gets 60mpg or so, and saves you significantly at the gas pump.
- When the weather turns for the worse in the fall, park it in the side yard and let it go "back to nature" over the winter.
It would've been much cheaper just to grit your teeth and spend $125 each time, to fill up the tank on that monster vehicle with doors.
* Single Occupant Vehicle
Here's the formula:
- Buy a high-MPG scooter to minimize the impact of $4 gas ($2500 or $3000, maybe?)
- Ride it over the course of the summer, maybe 2000 miles. Indeed, it gets 60mpg or so, and saves you significantly at the gas pump.
- When the weather turns for the worse in the fall, park it in the side yard and let it go "back to nature" over the winter.
It would've been much cheaper just to grit your teeth and spend $125 each time, to fill up the tank on that monster vehicle with doors.
* Single Occupant Vehicle
5 comments:
This is a good example of "penny-wise, pound-foolish".
Many tend to vastly underestimate the cost of transportation (focusing on the price of gasoline, when in reality it encompasses so much more).
Hey, a scooter is my "other" 2-wheeled vehicle, so I must defend it.
I get 100 mpg. I bought a full-face helmet and rode it to work at least once every month except May and June last year (and those were the months I rode my bicycle every day).
The scooter cost $2000 and I saved that much in gas in the first two years, compared to my pick-em-up truck. So, how is that penny-wise and pound-foolish?
Not to mention that I originally bought the scooter for my high-school-aged son and the money I saved on insurance alone over two years paid for the scooter.
Michael... I bet you baby that scooter too... don't you? (Or at least have some sheltered parking for it.)
The point I'm trying to make (and I'm sure bob t understands) is... even a scooter isn't "disposable." And it's expensive to consider only the MPG.
My "other car" is a sweet Harley-Davidson motorsickle. It has a prominent spot in the garage. (It gets 40+ MPG, which would be pretty respectable on the scale, but is DISMAL compared with a bicycle's infinite MPG!)
I put about 6000 miles on it a year. However, up to 4000 of those miles are over the course of 10 days or so each summer.
I'd love to have a sweet Vespa, and load it up with auxiliary lighting, chrome, etc. (Think "Quadrophenia.")
OK, you're right. I keep my scooter in the garage and I have a cover for it when I have to park it at work in the rain.
So, I'm not treating it as disposable. I see the "disposable" mentality in scooters, bikes, cars, etc.
But, since a former co-worker used to call me "Scooter Boy" I just had to defend it!!!! :)
You should wear the title Scooter Boy with pride! Sounds a little "superhero-ish"!!
- BIKEBOY
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