My husband surprised me the other day by suggesting we look at scooters. He had ridden motorcycles a lot when he was younger but I never had so I wasn't sure if it was a good idea or not. The high cost of gas was what prompted this suggestion. It happened to be a Monday and we had the day off for Memorial Day. We discovered that most cycle shops around town are closed on Sunday and Monday. We came across this car dealership that was open and they happened to carry some scooters as well. They had only two scooters of the size we were looking for: 50cc or less. According to the salesman, if the motor scooter is 50cc or less, you do not need to take the motorcycle test for your license and you don't have to have PIP insurance. It does have to be titled and registered.

We drove the scooters around the grassy lot at the dealership. We wanted to take them for a test drive on the road, but one of the salesmen wouldn't allow it for liability purposes because they didn't have a dealer tag for scooters. We even tried riding two people on one scooter. As long as you don't have to get anywhere quickly, they are great. The maximum speed is around 30 - 35 MPH. We decided to buy both scooters.

The distance to my work and back home is about 25 miles. I figure that each time I take the scooter instead of my van, I am saving a gallon's worth of gas. Right now that is a savings of about $4. As the gas prices go up, I'll be saving even more. We hope to use the scooters enough so that they pay for themselves in the saving on gas.