Fred,

Thanks for the tip on Vectrix - looks awesome. Just what I was looking for.

My car gets vastly superior milage to this piece of crap, AND makes fewer emissions. It's faster and has more storage too :P

"That's ridiculous, scooters and motorcycles should be banned in favor of Kai-class cars that get similar fuel economy but are dramatically cleaner and safer than scooters."

No need to ban them, just to have them meet decent emission standards. I don't see why that would be impossible...

So why haven't we seen pollution standards improved on scooters? Sure, there aren't a whole lot of them out there so the total pollution is small, but why not make those improvements?

My Honda Scooter has fuel injection and catalytic converter on it. Very clean running, meets Euro II standards. 40-50 mpg in all uses, so they are getting cleaner and more user friendly. I ride whenever the weather permits.

Can anyone comment on what kinds of pollutants motor scooters (2-stroke engines) produce so much of, and how bad they are relative to other pollutants? I drive a 2-stroke motor scooter and a 4-stroke station wagon, and the scooter uses 20% - 25% as much gasoline as the station wagon. In terms of carbon dioxide, it seems pretty straightforward that the scooter is producing much less than the car, despite the dirtier engine technology.

I understand that two-stroke engines give off a lot more un-burned hydrocarbons, as well as incomplete combustion products, but I don't know which chemicals we're talking about, or what their environmental effects are. Does anyone have information on this?

Thanks,
Eric

Like many post from people that disagree. Before disagreeing and posting your thoughts, the facts are that a "Scotter" doesn't need Insurance or a motorcycle license as long as its 50 cc or smaller. With a 50 cc scotter you will get around 70 mpg or more. The Kawasaki Zuma you can make adjustments to it and get the speed up to 60 instead of just maybe 40 mph.
Why care about comments from others that you are riding a scotter, you are saving a great deal of cash. The longer and higher fuel prices go the more you are going care less what others think of what you are riding about and happier about more cash in you pocket.

I 'relocalized' my life in Boise Idaho.

I got a job 2 miles from my tiny duplex near the city center, sold the truck a year ago, have 6 bicycles, and a KYMCO People 150.

I rode my bike through the snowy months and most of the summer months. The scooter gets dragged out once or twice a week at most to do the long trips (usually 20 miles or more roundtrip), or when I need to get somewhere fast.

As global 'Peak Oil' really starts impacting gas prices, I think most cars will just get parked. The economy will get so ugly that new, high mileage cars will be too costly.

I think many more scooters will appear but be driven infinitely fewer miles since people will need to live much closer to work.