Tim,

I agree — why can’t a motorcycle be transportation. It obviously could be but there are myriad reasons why people won’t use them in that manner. Just a few I’ve heard:

I wear a suit at work.
I have to take people to lunch.
I have a lot of gear to haul around to locations.
It’s no fun commuting to work.
My employer expects me to have a car or truck.

And I’m sure there are more reasons. I commute to work on the Vespa as often as I can but some of the above reasons have kept it at home. The automobile is so firmly ensconced in our culture that it is hard to imagine we’ll ever see much of a change in the number of people using two-wheeled machines for utilitarian purposes.

But why not transportation? I commute with a Suzuki C90 Boulevard on a daily basis, 10K+ per year, and figure the gas savings gives me free recreational riding. That saves the car for the few months that snow flies in central PA. Shiny is nice but not as much fun as riding!

Are you still in the training phase of marriage? *grin*

Having a scooter as the only form of transportation, especially with kids, would require more than some slight creativity I would think. Buses, cabs, walking, friends, everything would have to be on the table. And I know a scooter at the grocery store forces a lot of real world decisions that directly affect gluttony. I will say I am happy to have a front rack though to haul a watermelon!

It will be a tough sell, especially to those that keep their machines sparkling clean. Daily use in all weathers messes that up.