Scooter Concentrations

pcbikedude · Post by **pcbikedude** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 5:02 am

In San Diego, there are concentrated pockets of scooters. For example: North Park, HIllcrest, Kensington, Downtown, and Pacific Beach. Mainly because things are close by, streets are laid out in a grid, and generally the terrain is flat.

Where I live is flat but there are NO scooter shops. Therefore, few scooters.

What about some of your communities?

SarahScoot · Post by **SarahScoot** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 5:16 am

I just had to chime in because I have friends and relatives in Kensington (and Normal Heights), so I got all excited seeing SD neighborhoods I know really well. I used to visit my aunt in Kensington during summers in jr. high (10-12 years ago) and loved walking down to the little coffee shop down the road. I heard it was turned into a Starbucks a few years ago. Sad

Anyway, downtown Seattle seems to have a lot of scooters, but it's hard to tell which are commuters and which actually live around there. We have a few in West Seattle (several Buddy owners that I've seen!), but I'd say there are more on the north end - Ballard, Fremont, and I would assume the U District, although that's just a guess based on the sheer number of students. I largely avoid that area; complete traffic mess. Oh, Capitol Hill has a lot of scooterists, of course (come in, MikieTaps!)

greencountry · Post by **greencountry** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 5:28 am

Parts of Chicago seem to have a lot of scooters too ("lot" is relative though), while others are destitute of them. I've just recently opened my eyes to scooters, and only when I took interest, sad to say, did I really see how many of them were around. IMHO, there are ethnic-based and socioeconomic-based pockets in Chicago. The ethnic-based seem to be immigrants, esp European immigrants, who buy a scooter maybe because old habits die hard.

(I swear, almost every craigslist posting I responded to was a European immigrant selling a scooter, an extra scooter, etc. -- TOTALLY unscientific sample size, I know.)

The SE-based is, I think, because scooting is still seen as a kind of luxury here compared to getting a car (probly cuz not many folks plan on riding any open-air vehicle in the Chicago winters), so I see a lot of young professionals or middle- or upper-class types with scooters, but not nearly as much (read: none) in the "blue-collar" neighborhoods.

rickko · Post by **rickko** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 6:06 am

SarahScoot wrote:... loved walking down to the little coffee shop down the road. I heard it was turned into a Starbucks a few years ago. Sad ...

Good news! It did not turn into a Starbucks. It's still there. Starbucks went into a building kiddy-corner across the street!

So, come on back and enjoy another cup o'Joe in Kensington when you get a chance!

..rickko..

runtotorun121 · Post by **runtotorun121** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 6:20 am

Well I know there have been an awful lot of scooters sold here, but I sure can't find many of them. No pockets yet that I have seen.

Where, oh where are the elusive KC metro area scooters?

beagldog · Post by **beagldog** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 2:18 pm

runtotorun121 wrote:Well I know there have been an awful lot of scooters sold here, but I sure can't find many of them. No pockets yet that I have seen. Where, oh where are the elusive KC metro area scooters?

I was thinking that myself. I was a Scooter World Saturday and they have just a handful of scoots and not expecting any for about 3 weeks. A couple weeks ago, the shop was almost full. I saw a couple scoots around my neighborhood over the weekend but that's it. Mostly what I see are those Harley things.