Scooters: The New Menace On Australian Roads?

As the new motorcycle market heads for a record year here in Australia, buoyed by increased demand for scooters, a recent survey conducted by insurance company AAMI asserts that "one-third (33 per cent) of drivers nationally said that scooters were the new menace on Australia's capital city roads."

Now major motoring authorities such as the FCAI - the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries - have come out and rubbished AAMI's claims, essentially calling the company's surveyors a pack a liars. "The industry totally rejects these claims," said FCAI chief executive, Andrew McKellar. "AAMI has sought to draw a very long bow here. The claims are not supported by their own research." The (FCAI) and the affiliated Australian Scooter Federation (ASF) questioned the substance of the suggestions based on the survey findings, and delivered their own media release that pours scorn on the AAMI survey.

"I must say the industry is somewhat puzzled by the assertions contained in that press release, and the motives behind them, but generally if a question in a survey receives only 33 per cent support, then it suggests that 67 per cent did not support that view," said Mr McKellar. "The FCAI believes that the growing numbers of scooter riders are legitimate road users, and like most other road users the majority of them are responsible and sensible." The FCAI wasn't the only group that weighed into the 'scooter scourge' debate. InsureMyRide, a new Australian specialist online insurer of bikes and scooters, also refutes the AAMI survey, suggesting that 'riders' usually have a better perspective of shared road usage and its risks than car drivers.
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Scooters: Long-Term Investment or Short-Term Remedy?

This market forecast refers to numbers for on-road gas-powered scooters only. There are differences between scooters and mopeds, although many communities seem to consider them identical for legislative purposes. This article does not include the more traditional mopeds or motorized bicycles such as the Whizzer or Tomos. It also excludes electric scooters, although that niche is growing in popularity as evidenced by the number of distributors that are investigating importing hybrid and electric scooters. Gopeds, g-scooters or foot scooters also are not included in the forecast calculations.

Contrary To Some Earlier Forecasts, the overall scooter market in 2007 actually experienced a slight downturn. Sales of scooter units by the OEMs reporting to the Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) were flat compared to the volumes sold in 2006, whereas scooter sales by nontraditional brands actually declined. Total estimated sales for last year stood at 149,000 units, down more than 5 percent from the number of scooters sold by dealers in 2006.

However, it appears that last year's market decline was only a temporary dip. By the last quarter of 2007 the scooter market was heating up again, and has been generating considerable growth so far in 2008.
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Scooter defined by electricity, portability

It's energy efficient, it's clean, compact and simple, and, above all, it's very cool. All of these factors could be significant in getting people to adopt a lightweight, electrically powered scooter designed by William J. Mitchell, the Alexander W. Dreyfoos Professor of Architecture and Media Arts and Sciences, and several of his students in MIT's Smart Cities Group, in collaboration with SYM, a major scooter manufacturer in Taiwan, and ITRI, Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute. A prototype of the new design was a hit at the Milan Auto Show, where it was unveiled earlier this month.

Motor scooters are a very popular form of transportation in Asian and European cities, Mitchell said, because they provide convenient, inexpensive transportation. But conventional scooters, using inefficient two-stroke gas engines, are also a source of local air pollution. The new design "was all about providing a clean, green, silent electric scooter that would provide, even better, the same kind of urban mobility," he said. As an added bonus, the simplicity of the electric design, which eliminates the powertrain by putting motors directly inside each of the two wheels, made it possible to design the scooter so that it could be folded up to about half its size, making it even easier to store in crowded urban environments.

"In very dense urban areas where scooter parking is a big issue, the small size is a big advantage. It makes it possible to park it in narrow streets and alleys," Mitchell said. When folded, it can also be easily wheeled along like a trolley suitcase, and is no larger, making it easy to take along on trains or even indoors.
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Scooters rapidly catching on with U.S. consumers

Scooters have long been a popular form of transportation in most of the world, particularly the Far East, India, Latin America and European countries such as Italy, Spain and France. Their popularity stems from not only their affordability and relative mechanical simplicity, but also their convenience with parking in urban environments and over-crowded locations. In the United States, up until recently, scooters have never really caught on. There was a period in the 1980s when sales volumes were strong, but that was largely buoyed by massive advertising campaigns, and when these ended the market rapidly contracted to the core of existing scooter enthusiasts.

The automobile has long been the transportation of choice since Americans generally are better off financially and are not subject to the crowded areas and narrow streets prevalent in much of the rest of the world. Indications are, however, that this may be changing. In recent years, U.S. scooter sales have been surging as their popularity is growing among college students, retirees, RV owners and inner-city commuters.
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Cute scooter defined by electricity, portability

It's energy efficient, it's clean, compact and simple, and, above all, it's very cool. All of these factors could be significant in getting people to adopt a lightweight, electrically powered scooter designed by William J. Mitchell, the Alexander W. Dreyfoos Professor of Architecture and Media Arts and Sciences, and several of his students in MIT's Smart Cities Group, in collaboration with SYM, a major scooter manufacturer in Taiwan, and ITRI, Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute. A prototype of the new design was a hit at the Milan Auto Show, where it was unveiled earlier this month.

Motor scooters are a very popular form of transportation in Asian and European cities, Mitchell said, because they provide convenient, inexpensive transportation. But conventional scooters, using inefficient two-stroke gas engines, are also a source of local air pollution. The new design "was all about providing a clean, green, silent electric scooter that would provide, even better, the same kind of urban mobility," he said.

As an added bonus, the simplicity of the electric design, which eliminates the powertrain by putting motors directly inside each of the two wheels, made it possible to design the scooter so that it could be folded up to about half its size, making it even easier to store in crowded urban environments. "In very dense urban areas where scooter parking is a big issue, the small size is a big advantage. It makes it possible to park it in narrow streets and alleys," Mitchell said. When folded, it can also be easily wheeled along like a trolley suitcase, and is no larger, making it easy to take along on trains or even indoors.