Motorcycles and Motor Scooters

Information and Opinions Regarding motorized 2-wheel vehicles as a Mode of Transportation

by Bob Fleming

A Greater Seattle home page My monorail web site My mass transit web site Contact me
Different Modes of Transportation:
Walking, Running, Jogging Bicycles Automobiles Buses Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Streetcars Light Rail Heavy Rail Subways Monorails Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) Maglev

My name is Bob Fleming, and I am very interested in seeing a greatly improved transportation system for Seattle and the surrounding region.

The information about the use of motorcycles is very similar to that for automobiles, so I am not going to say much about motorcycles.

Motorcycles differ from cars in that they are smaller and use less roadway, and cost much less to purchase and operate.

Obviously a motorcycle or motor scooter uses more gas than a bicycle, but still they use a lot less than a car, so their use should be encouraged as one way to cut down on traffic congestion, road construction and repair, and carbon emissions.

Motor scooters are even smaller than motorcycles, use less gas, and generally cost less to purchase and operate than motorcycles.

One problem reported by operators of motor scooters is that when parking in an area where parking meters have been replaced by the new kiosks that dispense parking stickers for application to the windshield of a vehicle, is that sometimes people take the sticker off the windshield of the scooter and use it on their own vehicle. Also sometimes scooter owners return to find their scooter moved and a car parked in its place! Although these parking problems were reported by scooter operators, some of the problems probably also apply to motorcycles. But unlike the lighter-weight scooters, I don’t think we’re going to see many Harleys moved out of their space!

For more information applicable to the use of motorcycles as a mode of transportation, please see my page on Automobiles.

My Opinions

There is a problem specific to motorcycles and motor scooters in that they can use parking spaces much smaller than those for cars, but they have to follow the same rules as cars, and generally pay the same fees.

I believe that, in all fairness, that there should be more smaller parking spaces designated for motorcycles (which would include motor scooters). Also, in areas that have the kiosks selling stickers, that old parking meters be installed, one for each motorcycle parking space, and that the parking fees be at least 50% less than for cars, after all, the two-wheelers take uo less space. One car parking space can be converted into spaces for four or more motorcycles. The parking meters would also make it vitually impossible for a car driver to steal the fee or space. A car parked in a space with four or five meters alongside it would make it pretty obvious to police that there is a violation.


Return to A Greater Seattle home page

Contact me

©2006 Robert M. Fleming Jr.

This page was last updated on 16 May 2018.

Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional