A few years back there was a major surge in scooter sales due in part to fuel prices. Often it seems people like to buy stuff in the name of saving. For the most part they were used to augment regular vehicle use, and probably for the most part never “saved” people anything. Living in Minnesota, other practical reasons made them more likely to stay in the garage until pothole season, and those small tires hit potholes hard. Not being able to ride on the highways means that there are many places the things just cannot go.
The one oddity that makes them useful in the city is that legally they can be parked like a bicycle, usually taking area that more than one bike could have parked, and further crowding already difficult to use sidewalks.
One of my neighbors had one that he used year round to commute. His had a strange addition of a “muffler” that made an otherwise quiet vehicle sound like a cross between a motorbike and a leaf blower. Said it gave him a power boost and let others know where he was. I think I could smell the blue smoke from the tailpipe before I could hear it.
Fortunately, it seems that our local bike program and car rentals have pretty much taken the place of the Vespa dealerships.
Vespa rocks! Scooters are doing quite well around here, especially with college age people, and far more common than meteorites.. I’m considering one myself. I rode scooters in my youth too. .You meet the nicest people on a Honda! My son rides his four-stroke Kymco scooter year round and it saves him substantial dollars in fuel and insurance compared to the car he was driving. Cold weather is an issue, as it would be for riding an un-motorized bike. It also offers the additional safety advantage that he isn’t texting while driving anymore.
Feadoggie
Are you trying to hijack this thread, Nano? What on earth has that got to do with scooters?
Vesta Rocks. Vest o’ rocks. Get it? Har har.
Your mind works like no other. 
Flattery will put no coin of mine in your pocket, in case you were hoping. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find bling vests out there? I mean, good ones? That one up above was the best I could come up with. I wanted a gotta-wear-shades, 80 lbs o’ solid rhinestones, freakin’ Swarovsky-tastic extravaganza of hazardous, give-you-a-tan SCINTILLATION in a guy vest. Was that so much to ask?
I guess you’re right. No one’s thinkin’ like me out in the fashion world.
Why did they place the camisole with the bad ass vest? No one is going to wear it they way. At least the wearer wouldn’t have to worry that someone would say, “Bitch stole my look.”
… b-b-b-ut … but … that’s not a scooter!
Sheesh!
Maybe this sums it all up?
Gwyneth Paltrow rocks! Riding her Vespa wearing an R13 shearling vest.
I guess that’s really stretching it.
Aha! Now we’re getting somewhere!
Think of me as the Merkin equivalent of the Loyal Opposition.
Scooter?
Thai scooter?
But what on earth have the scooters got to do with Vesta? Did she ride one (Vesta on a Vespa?) or is ‘earth’ already a red herring when she was a flaming goddess? (Nope, apparently not when she was a very ‘earthy’ goddess said by Ovid to be the earth!)
The Whigs??? Oh … wait … it’s that new-fangled lot at the moment, isn’t it … name’ll come back to me eventually … it really will …
I know. Personally I think Ben was being a bit waspy about the Vespas and all.
I’m staying on point. Vespa rocks!