Motorbike Girl
Photo by (b)engel
In about a week, Chicago's public transit system is going to explode. Perhaps explode is the wrong word... implode is more fitting. If you haven't followed along with the CTA mayhem1 or caught the headlines in The New York Times, about half of the CTA el system is about to be ground to a complete halt. My half of course. My commute to and from work will be doubling or tripling (it's already a ridiculous 40-50 minutes instead of the 30-35 it used to be). Tempers will be short, stations farecards will be burned and I want to avoid the whole damn mess.
I am considering taking this chaos and making lemonade by purchasing the scooter I've always coveted. I've never owned a scooter, or driven a scooter2 but the modgirl hidden in me has always drooled over a vintage Lambretta.
I've got my eye on a model or two, and I've got to come up with the money but my mind has been set at traipsing about my beautiful city with a helmet on my head and avoiding all public transit chaos to come.
Here's where you, the reader, come in... I am looking for recommendations, words of wisdom, scooters/dealers/brands to avoid, etc. Basically if you have something to say about scooters or scooter ownership, I wanna hear it. Leave comments below. Please? I really have no idea what I'm doing...
1 I don't blame anyone for ignoring all the sky-is-falling-sky-is-falling CTA stories in the Chicago media. If it didn't affect me completely I would have assumed that Frank Kruesi is a loud mouth Chicken Little.
2 I don't count riding on the back while holding onto someones waist and squealing in joy like a wee wee girl.
Buy some: Would-Be-Goods
Comments
as someone who was almost killed 18 months ago when coming off a Vespa and causing a five-car pile up as a result, I'd have to say "be careful".
a) Scooters are awesome.
b) They're probably particularly awesome where traffic isn't a problem, and there is a critical mass of other scooter riders, pedestrians and cyclists. But in a city like Auckland there are just too many cars and trucks on the road.
c) Scotters also have very small wheels, which makes braking at speed a problem. (See point a.)
d) Try to take one for a test-ride in traffic and see how you get on. They are fantastic fun, and cost almost nothing to run. But they're also not too much fin in the cold or the rain.
Sorry for being a bit negative. Having escaped narrowly with my life, I'm still vaguely freaked out at the idea of anyone I know getting on one.
Posted by: Lawrence Mikkelsen | March 27, 2007 01:58 AM
Hey Lawrence,
It's funny, as I was writing this last night I did think about your accident. I knew it was bad but I didn't realize that it was really *that* bad. Safety is a concern of mine, especially where Chicago traffic can get bad at times. I will definitely test ride on a semi busy street to see how much it freaks me out. That's actually the problem I have with riding my bike here, it seems so unsafe in traffic. As a scooter who would be more involved in the traffic flow I feel like it might be easier. I guess I'll find out though.
Thanks for your input.
Liz
Posted by: liz | March 27, 2007 02:32 PM
yes! yes! yes! i think you should get a scooter, but you know this since we just talked about this the other day. when sarah and i went to test drive a scooter here in STL we needed a motorcycle license to test drive. but we don't need a license to drive. so if
that's the case in Chicago you may need to buy one off craigslist or something if a dealer won't let you test drive. the only other thing i'll say about a scooter is that you/we
don't live in a year-round scooter city... so luckily you still have access to public transport on those yucky/rainy/snowy/shitty days.
Posted by: jane | March 28, 2007 11:43 AM