Living without a car

At left, Steph ready for a scooter ride in the rain by Abbysmal from Photobucket.

One broken wheel and a busy week later and I'm wondering if my past desire to only drive a scooter is a realistic one.

I had taken my Mini Cooper to a local tire dealer who at first ordered the wrong tires, then somehow broke my wheel. Yes, broke my wheel.

They had to special order the wheel, and when it finally came in three days later, it was the wrong wheel. This left me more than a week without a car as my poor Mini languished in a strip mall parking lot. (I won't get into my freak-out when a hail storm hit the area and I thought they'd left my baby outside.)

I learned that if I really want a scooter to travel around on a regular basis, I'm probably better off with a 150cc powered one or higher. I love my 125 Vino, but I couldn't go home to visit friends and family over Memorial Day weekend because it just wasn't safe to travel Route 422 on it. I would've been moving much too slow for the traffic and likely would've gotten blown off an overpass by a semi.

The scooter even proved itself a little impractical for running errands around town. I couldn't fit a full load of groceries in the storage compartment, and I don't have the proper ties or cargo holder to carry stuff on the cargo bar. Of course if I did, it probaby wouldn't have been so bad.

Then there is the matter of rain. It turned out to be a pretty wet week, which kept me inside when I wanted to travel to do something. I have a rain suit for hiking, which would have worked fine for the scooter. It's bright yellow and made by Columbia Sportswear.

I don't have a windscreen, which means even with a full-face helmet, I can find myself riding in the rain and feeling like someone is shooting bullets at me. And forget about going out with the half-face and getting stuck in a storm. Miserable experience. Happened twice.

So is it practical to only have a scooter for a vehicle? Well, if you don't have to travel on major highways to get anywhere, have the right equipment, and don't mind driving in the rain, I guess so, but it wouldn't be easy. I guess that's why most populations that use mostly scooters live in warm, tropical places or major cities. You don't have to travel far when you carry something and home is not too far away when it rains. If it rains.