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Cars are for hauling lumber
Our standard service rate is $79/hour. We offer a sliding scale so that people who can't afford the standard rate can have work done at a significantly lower rate if they show a pay stub and fall below a certain income. We want everyone to have transportation.
You will soon be able to track your scooter's service status in real time on our website (log in HERE). No more wondering, no more busy signals, and your running total at your fingertips. You can even sign up for text message updates. Pretttty cool.
Look! We're in the Austin Pets Directory! Photo by Patty Mora.
Scooter Revolution does not sell scooters online. We only sell locally in the Austin area. Why? We like to service what we sell and get to know local scooterists. It's important that people who buy from us stay happy and know where they can come if they ever need help.
Thanks to all the people around North Loop who have stopped by to welcome us to the neighborhood!
Our shop is located at 112 East North Loop Blvd.
SCOOTERS IN THE NEWS:
Scooters Could Have Big Impact on NYC Environment, Congestion, Business
NEW YORK -- Data from a new traffic model released demonstrates that the nation's largest city could significantly reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, a key factor in the global warming debate, and reduce fuel consumption while saving a great deal of time lost to congestion by simply incorporating more motor scooters into the commuting vehicle mix.
The results of this study directly respond to growing concerns about traffic congestion in New York City. In his December 2006 sustainability speech, Mayor Michael Bloomberg discussed the City's growing congestion challenges and set a goal to reduce New York's emissions by 30 percent.
The results of the core simulation were extrapolated to encompass the entire Manhattan Central Business District (stretching from 60th Street to the lower tip of Manhattan). By shifting the daytime vehicle mix to 80 percent cars/20 percent scooters, the following would result annually:
-- A total decrease in delay of more than 4.6 million hours per year -- which translates to time savings of nearly 100 working hours per person
-- A reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by over 26,000 tons (52,000,000-pounds) per year
-- A decrease in fuel consumption by more than 2.5 million gallons per year
-- A total savings for New York City of more than $122 million per year in fuel and labor productivity
The team at Sam Schwartz PLLC noted that the simulation was conservative in its estimation of the positive impact of scooters -- as it did not factor into the model that two scooters can occupy a single lane side-by-side when riding, as permitted by New York law.
"Throughout the world, scooters are recognized as a smart transportation alternative, and this traffic simulation underscores the tangible impact that two-wheel vehicles can have on a major urban area like New York City," said Paolo Timoni, President and CEO of Piaggio Group Americas, which sponsored the modeling project.
Timoni said, "The impact of this kind of shift has already been seen in London, which instituted congestion tariffs for commuting cars. That policy led to a significant increase in vehicles like scooters being used for commuting. Research is now validating that even small behavioral changes, like using scooters for a portion of one's commuting, can benefit the economy and help address critical environmental issues like global warming."
OTHER NEWS:
Ask Alicia Karr why, at age 56, she bought her first motor scooter, and her answer is succinct: "Al Gore and Europe."
On a trip to Italy last fall, Karr, an artist from Radnor, Pa., fell in love with Scooter Culture: the men in business suits, the women in long skirts. Gore's movie on the perils of carbon emissions, "An Inconvenient Truth," sealed the deal.
And so Karr purchased a Vespa LX 250 in "aurora blue" - metallic sky blue. "The artist in me fell in love with that."
Her intention was to use the Vespa for short trips and errands, instead of driving her SUV, thereby saving gas and fossil fuel while making a small contribution to the welfare of Planet Earth. (Ten days after she picked up her scooter, a tree fell on her Lexus SUV, totaling it.)
More and more Americans, tired of sharing their paychecks with Exxon and dealing with ricocheting oil prices, are adopting scooters as economical "second cars," or as a practical vehicle to tool around the city.
"It costs me like $4 to fill up with gas," said Jennica Tucker, 21, who bought her Vespa LX 150 in July to commute to classes at Temple University in Philadelphia. "And that lasts for two weeks."
When William Nickle was commuting from Elkton, Md., to his job in Wilmington, Del., in his Dodge Ram pickup, he was spending at least $85 a week on gas, his wife estimated. Now that he's making the 40-mile round trip on his Suzuki Burgman scooter, which gets about 60 mpg, he's spending only $15 to $20.
Scooter makers have not been shy about pointing this out. One Vespa ad proclaims: "Gas Price Is the One High You Won't Experience."
The message must be registering. Sales of scooters made by Piaggio, which includes the Vespa and Aprilia brands, have been growing at a 15 percent to 20 percent annual clip for five years, said Kevin Andrews, brand manager for Piaggio and Vespa scooters for Piaggio Group Americas. This year, they'll likely surge 30 percent more.
"Scooters are the fastest-growing segment in the two-wheel industry," said Mike Mount, a spokesman for the Motorcycle Industry Council. In 2005, 113,000 scooters were sold in the United States, nearly a tenth of total motorcycle sales.
Scooters differ from motorcycles in several ways. They have smaller wheels, step-through frames, foot platforms and leg shields. While motorcyclists straddle the engine, on scooters the motor is low, close to the rear wheel and usually encased. Scooter motors are typically smaller and less powerful, with displacement commonly ranging from 49 to 250 cubic centimeters.
Designed by an Italian aeronautical engineer, the first scooter was built in 1946 (which means the jaunty vehicles celebrate their 60th birthday this year). When Enrico Piaggio, head of the company that made it, saw the prototype, he exclaimed, "Sembra una vespa!" ("It looks like a wasp!")
Today's scooters don't guzzle gas, they sip; depending on engine size, scooters can travel from 40 to more than 100 miles on a gallon of gas.
Scooters are fit for the frugal in other ways. Initial purchase prices range from $1,200 for a simple 50cc number to as much as $8,000 for a souped-up 650cc high-performance model. Most are inexpensive to insure, and parts are cheap. They can go anywhere a car can go and just as fast. (Bigger ones can exceed 100 mph.)
Scooters have their limitations. Like bicycles and motorcycles, they are sometimes hard for motorists to see.
"I've had people pull out in front of me," Barbara Nickle said. "You do have to take extra precautions. You have to be on guard more."
Tedford Juachon, shop manager at Philadelphia Scooters, said the scooterists who patronize his shop range from indie rockers to retirees, from purple-haired couriers to bow-tie-wearing lawyers.
Nevertheless, scooterists are distinctive. For starters, they tend to be older (median age 46, a council survey shows) and more often female (24 percent) than owners of other two-wheel motor vehicles.
"Women my age see my scooter," Karr said, "and walk up to me in parking lots. `That looks really neat. Tell me about it,' they say."
Indeed, graying baby boomers and the AARP crowd are fueling much of the current scooter boom.
"We see a lot of ladies and gentlemen in their 60s, 70s and 80s who rode motorcycles their whole lives and enjoyed the freedom but physically are at a point where they can't hold (one) up," said Don Brown, a salesman at Powersports East in Bear, Del. "So they go to scooters."
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