getting Vespalitical
By now, you've probably heard about the Vespatition, part of Vespa USA's new Vespanomics campain. I'd been hoping Neil would post about it, since he's much better at political pundicity than I am.
My initial reaction was that the Vespanomics announcement was preaching to the choir - I mean, I'm pretty sure a good portion of us already had a semblance of "ecological, economic, and personal satisfaction" after buying a Vespa, or any scooter in these days of high gas prices. I couldn't figure out what the big deal was about, other than it was another cutesy play on the name "Vespa" (like my cutesy play on Vespastential over on Vespaquest).
The push is twofold: 1) to get you to tell your friends about the benefits of riding a scooter (as if you haven't already!) and 2) to sign the Vespatition to "promote the conversion of some automobile parking spaces to two-wheel spaces."
Our friends already know we are a bit nuts about our scooters, and we're perhaps somewhat biased when we tell them we think they should get one. The Vespanomics web site, however, arms us with tons of stats we can use to validate all of our biased claims. :-) I already knew that I was saving a lot of money by riding my scooter rather than driving my car. But did you know that the average American household spent $7,781 annually on commuting by car, and that using a scooter could reduce their fuel consumption by 58%? How's that for impressive cocktail-hour fodder?
The Vespatition is a tool to try to get municipalities to pay attention to scooterists and motorcyclists, and to try to accomodate us - which can only make a positive impact on both two-wheelers and the businesses they frequent (or want to frequent, but can't find parking in order to do so). It would potentially increase the use of public transportation, if there were safe parking places at mass-transit parking lots. While I don't have the same parking space challenges as Neil or others who struggle to find parking in the city or who need secure parking at mass-transit hubs, I make many of my destination decisions based on whether or not a place has secure parking. If I can't lock to a solid object - especially if parking is out of my line of sight or my alarm is out of my range of hearing - then I often choose a different store or restaurant. I signed the Vespatition.
Read what VespaUSA is supporting.
