I’m visiting Italy and floored by the number of mopeds. Found the same thing in Vietnam. Having spent time in New York, Chicago, St Louis, Seattle, Miami and lots in Orlando, I’ve never seen anything like this in the USA. Is there a cultural reason or economic reason the USA prefers motorcycles over mopeds?
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A lot of people are saying it’s because of distances etc.
That might be true but I think it’s also a cultural thing. The auto-industry and its lobby built post-war America.
In most of the US working is ample and infrastructure is geared up for cars. You can start driving from between 14 and 16 and used cars are cheap.
Mopeds and scooters solve a problem the US doesn’t have. The US has never had a domestic scooter industry, or a lack of infrastructure for cars or people willing to spend money on cars. In Italy, Vietnam and India, all of these factors play into making scooters and mopeds more popular.
Additionally, the relatively unsafety as of US roads makes being in the road in anything other than a car feel unsafe in a lot of cities in the US. Snowy winters and extreme Summers don’t help encourage cyclists or scooter riders.
Inequality and probably a lot of other factors, also mean that motorcycle theft is a major factor in a lot of Us cities. While this is true in other parts of the world, a lot of places with a moped culture do not suffer from this to the same extent.
A major point, which is more generic motorcycling than just scooters, is that filtering has historically been totally illegal in the US (except California) which removes one of the major advantages of motorcycling over taking a car for most people.
My city (mid sized college town) does. Lots of students, parking is expensive, City isn’t too big
My state has a moped culture: If you see a moped the person on it is probably an alcoholic and had their license revoked.
Living in Vegas, two problems are speed and heat. Wearing a Helmut would not be fun in 115 Temps. Posted 65 limits are typically going 75.
Mopeds were huge in my medium sized city in Indiana around 2009, havent seen them much since. It helped there that most of the roads there are flat and straight.
Lotta people chiming in here who have never driven a moped in the USA.
As a moped rider I really don’t know why they are not more popular. Most people have many trips that are well inside the moped range, grocery store, friends house, restaurants whatever. And people complain about weather but it’s not that bad, HTFU.
I would say it’s one of a few factors. First, it cannot really be a primary vehicle. Second it’s just straight up dangerous. Third, unless you can ride in the bike lane(proper moped registration, allowed in some states) a motorcycle is just more practical.
In states where you can drive mopeds (50cc scooters and smaller) in the bike lane they are a truly underutilized vehicle. You beat traffic in the bike lane, and can park in any bike rack or even on the sidewalk if you are brave.
I’ll add something tangentially related.
I live in Southern California, and I ride a motorcycle as a secondary vehicle. In the U.S., we have powerful motorcycles that are (at least) as powerful as normal cars, most of which are on par with performance cars. Even still, motorcycles are a relatively very dangerous method of transportation and are almost exclusively used as a luxury toy.
I’m still weary of other traffic when I ride because I have literally nothing separating me from the road if something goes wrong short of basic riding gear.
There’s not a chance in hell I’m going to go anywhere near a public road on a motorcycle adjacent vehicle that has 7 horsepower. Mopeds just aren’t powerful enough to deal with the fact that our roads are massive, generally clear of obstacles, and filled with extremely overpowered, overweight vehicles driven by people that shouldn’t be legally allowed to drive a bicycle on public roads.
That’s a big one for people.
We do. It’s called a liquorsycle.
DUI and your license is taken? Don’t need one on a moped.
Car companies working with oil & gas companies to keep small economic vehicles off American streets and sell giant gas guzzling horrors instead.
I’ve known a few people who had them over the years. It was definitely a club type thing for them.
That said… it is because people drive huge vehicles and there are a lot of not so good drivers on the road. In my city, when the light turns green you have to count to three slowly before going or you are likely to get nailed by people running the red lights. It is more common than not that this will happen. Bad enough in my car if it happens… real bad on moped.
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