10.24.2003
Are scooters not a LEM (Low Emission Vechicle)?
So I bought a scooter. Nothing fancy, and of course since I am a CHEAP ASS...it is used. Cute little 1986 Honda Elite 80. It is supposed to get between 80 and a 100 miles per gallon. Damn good. I filled the tank up with premium for $1.91 and it should last me a month.

At work we have this program put on by the facilities department where you can register your alternative commutes. They have categories for carpooling, public transit, walking, bicycling...but there was nothing for say...electric cars, hybreds or scooters.

Of course I promptly wrote an email to the coordinator, asking why I couldn't be as cool as the other froods and register my commutes on my 100mpg scooter. The response I got perplexed me. Basically it was that since DEQ doesn't accept motorcycles and the like for credit toward ozone reductions. I was like WHAT THE FUCK!?! The coordinator even stated that it may be rather narrow minded of DEQ to think this way, but what could we do really...ugh

So let's do the math....I like to put it in terms of MPG because it is easy to play with. Though I think my theories may be a bit insane, yay for that.

So we take two people who normally use SUVs to go to work, let's say at 16MPG each. If they carpool together you are really getting 32MPGs of value for keeping that other goddamn SUV off the road. With three people it would be 48MPG and so on.

Next we look at my scooter. here I am, one person, getting 100MPG of value out of getting myself to work. You would need 6 people in an SUV to pull off that kind of figure. And here I am. Insane little me pulling it off all on my own.

I'm not sure the concept really makes any sense, because with 6 people in an SUV you certainly get more people there at the same time, but then again, if 6 people were riding scooters it would take up about the same amount of roadspace. Seems to be a wash to me, but not to the dark evils of DEQ...