The War on Noisy Death Traps

People everywhere are buying and riding little gas and electric electric scooters.

This calls for action! From New York to Illinois to Massachusetts, local officials fight to restore safety and tranquility to their communities by eradicating the scooter menace.

"If it's illegal to use, it should be illegal to sell," said Gene Russianoff, a senior lawyer at the New York Public Interest Research Group. "Most people who are buying it aren't looking to use it in their backyard or the neighborhood parking lot. They're looking to use it for transportation."

(Electric scooters evidently don't qualify as one of New York PIRG's acceptable alternatives to driving.)

Comments

[Todd Fletcher]

I used to have a kid with a blaring, obnoxious gas scooter on my block too. Only I haven't seen him in a while. Maybe somebody shot him. It would be justifiable homocide.

[Heinz]

I love those scooters. I see kids riding them all the time, and it looks like fun! So, if the red-devils at Nypirg are against it, I think it is time to buy one and act like an adolescent. Hey, these recycled 60s-era middle-aged liberals at Nypirg act like adolescents all the time!

HA!

[dhex]

they're fun unless your window is 8 feet from the sidewalk and you're trying to get some audio editing done. i think i'm going to fix the problem by buying a ride on lawnmower and idling it out side his house for 8 hours.

[Douglas Fletcher]

dhex

If you're doing audio editing, you have a more powerful tool. Put a big subwoofer out there go subsonic on them and drive them crazy without them even knowing why.

[Stich]

Ah, excuse me, but where are the officers enforcing sound ordinances for Harleys with illegal straight pipes? Did anyone know that those bikes are actually quiet from the factory with a real muffler? Jebus. Quiet is cool. You can still hear the damn blub, blub, blub exhaust.

[Keith]

NYPIRG. I've never before encountered a group of brass-balled hypocrites like that until I was a student at Cornell in the 90's and watched as they attempted (and failed) to hijack the student activty fee to create a permanent 70K/year position for some NYPIRG muckety-muck. I just hope the following classes have continued to extend the finger to these bait-and-switch machiavellis.

How does NYPIRG feel about Segway? Is it OK because only people who can drop 3 grand can use one; or because Dean Kamen has good liberal cred? Or does NYPIRG have at least one slim tendril of internal consistency and oppose the Segway on the same grounds as these scooters?

[garrison]

I hate the gas machines? Are they legal in California?

[Brad S]

Liberal America has been crying for years about the problems created by the automobile: air pollution, noise, the need for miles and miles of paved roads and acres upon acres of parking lots, etc.

The market produces a relatively quiet, unobtrusive (i.e. easy to store/park), non-polluting (at least, the electric version) mode of transportation. And what happens? A Liberal public interest group (okay, that was redundant, I know) cries foul. Gee. Go figure.

[max power]

Yeah, ok, but those gas-powered scooters are painfully loud. Have you heard one up close?

[dhex]

yeah, i've got a kid on my block who goes up and down and up and down cause his mom won't let him go around the block. it's fucking hellish after a while but thankfully he gets bored after about 30 minutes or so. i did briefly ask the woman if she'd considered getting something a little less noisy, like a bicycle, but she didn't think that was too funny.

[Anonymous]

NYPIRG has been staffed by nosey old birkenstock wearing busybodies at least sincwe 84, when they lead the drive to put a nickle deposit on SOME bottles and cans (but not all), thereby driving up the cost of beer and soda way beyond a nickle per container.

A pox on their houses. i hope they're inflicted with social workers busybodies in their old age!!!

[Carl LaFong]

About 15 years ago, Cal State University, Fullerton banning all bicycle riding on campus because someone was killed in a bike/ped accident at another school. The ban, which lasted a year or more, may have been state-wide, I can't recall.

[nm156]

The problem is that these urchins and their toys are on the roads and are uninsured, not to mention unlicensed. The police in many jurisdictions do not consider them motor vehicles for the purposes of traffic citations, either. So if they cause an accident, there are no repurcussions to the little SOB who is responsible. I know I sound like a crotchety old fart, but get the #%^&^(@ things off the street!

[Andrew]

Are we talking about the little platform scooters or the actual 49cc version? I own a 49cc and it was very quiet until I put a new exhaust system on it. Now its sound is much like that of a subdued Harley. In general, a two-stroke engine is very quiet, I do not see why people see these as loud machines. Certainly a platform scooter with a chainsaw type motor will be very loud, but these are classified as toys rather than transportation. In many towns and cities, scooters are far and away the best form of transportation, and many get over 100 MPG. Also, I have a friend who recieved a speeding ticket on one, so the argument that police ignore them is void. Most of the world recognizes two-wheeled, two-stroke transportation (scooters and mopeds) as the most intelligent form of transportation. Scooter sales are up 350% in the United States. These things aren't going away. If noise is your only concern, how about inforcing the existing laws in place. I can think of numerous vehicles that are simply straight pipe, making way over the alloted amount of noice...many many times more than any two-stroke motor I have ever encountered. Also, what about the countless Civics and Eclipses with fart cans on the back, filling the streets with the sounds of a thousand bumblebees. These are the real culprits of noise pollution, not some kid who has found a smarter way to get around town.

[trevor]

i agree with andrew, those civics with the fart cans should be banned, a long with faggish harley davidsons that make so much damn noise when they roll by you brain rattles in your skull...what about the decible lovel on those things??!! dont complain about go-peds noise and then defend harleys