It's Not a Moped!!

One of my pet peeves is that sometimes people call scooters mo-peds. But scooters are not mo-peds and mo-peds are not scooters. You see, a m-oped is a pedal assisted vehicle aka a motorized bike. Hence the term mo-ped, motorized pedal. If you saw the movie Spiderman 2 you would have seen Peter Parker riding one of them (as pictured, left). So when I come across an article by a Wisconsin paper (The Sheboygan Press) which talks about scooters, but calls them mo-peds it makes my blood boil. They clearly SHOW a picture of a SCOOTER in the article, and it is obvious they are talking about SCOOTERS, but they continue to use the term mo-ped. They obviously do a disservice to their readers. They also fail to mention the wide array of scooters that do exists, because they are stuck in a mo-ped mentality. I can’t even bear to quote the article, read it at your own peril here.

Comments

[Crystal Waters]

Neil, I'm guessing it's probably because so many states have this fuzzy grey area in their statutes about scooters, where some are classified as mopeds and some are classified as motorcycles. As a former newspaper reporter, I can attest that reporters often have a fuzzy grey concept of what a scooter is, since they most often will base their definition on the fuzzy legal statutes. But sometimes they don't even read those: There was a local reporter who tried to cover the issue of Razor-like scooters that local law enforcement were trying to keep off the road. She lumped motorscooters like ours into the "street illegal" category. For weeks, I had people coming up to me to warn me how I had to stay off the road or the cops would be after me (thankfully the police force knew the difference).

[foosball_monkey]

I emailed the person with corrections; hopefully they will do their research before writing such rubbish! ;) Here in Austin, TX they categorized my Yamaha Vino Classic, a 50 cc engine scooter, as a moped and you have to be licensed as that to drive it around. Oh, silly TX Department of Motor Vehicles!

[Ed]

Neil, for what its worth, I wrote the author of the article and he indicates that the local Yamaha dealer in Wisconsin told him that "The state used to require that mopeds have pedals, but that has changed and are no longer required. The state also used to require that mopeds could not travel at over 35 mph, but that has changed too." He also states that the Dept of Transportation says mopeds are sometimes scooters. I decided to look this up myself and went to the Wisconsion Dept of Transportation website and found a PDF of the Motorcyclists Handbook. On page 4, the define a moped as:

A MOPED IS:

Any of the following vehicles
(excluding a tractor) capable of
speeds not more than 30 mph,
with 150 lb. rider on a dry, level,
hard surface with no wind, a
power source as an integral part
of the vehicle, and a seat for the
operator:

• A bicycle-type vehicle with fully
operative pedals and an engine
certified by the manufacturer at
not more than 50 cc.

• A Type 1 motorcycle with an
automatic transmission and
engine certified at not more than
50 cc.

So appears that the last definition would indicate any twist and go motorcycle that is less than 50cc is a moped in their state.

Ed

[Jonathan]

C'mon, guys, Neil is absolutely right. It doesn't matter a Sheboygan sparrow's arse what the local definition of moped is, the international understanding for what the bikes described in the article are is scooters. The reporter's not writing up a ticket, he's supposedly educating his readers! Under your logic, in NYC we should be calling our scooters "motorcycles."

[Neil Barton]

Jonathan has it right. Every state agency has a different name for scooters determined by some nameless bureaucrat somewhere. This has nothing to do with identifying the scooter properly in cultural terms. This article was written about a changing culture, not a changing state rule on two wheeled vehicles under 50cc’s. That is where the reporter failed. This reporter wrote an entire article about mo-ped culture when they should have been talking about scooters. Image the shock of the people who read this article and then tried to Google “mo-ped” only to find motorized bikes with pedals? The term is scooter culturally, that is what should have been used.

[Jonathan, Vespaway]

Some of my long-time scootering friends jokingly, lovingly refer to their scooters as "mopeds" -- the way motorcyclists sometimes refer to their bikes as "scooters." The problem I have with this the bottom line of what you are addressing, Neil, confusion among the general public. I don't want some kid in a truck cutting me off just because they think I can only go 30mph.

[FASTAC 6]

On a late night in Chicago, c.1979, a large Harley with an oversize rider and his passenger stopped beside me at a light on Belmont Ave. "Nice moped", the rider sneered. When he caught up with my P200E eight blocks later, he had a look of new respect on his face. "That thing really moves". I nodded agreement and continued home.

[Beale Carter]

I get these kind of remarks all the time. I drive a 2005 GT200, and love it. When I bought it one of my "friends" laughed at me. She could not understand why I bought a mo-ped. I have also had my scooter called a liquer cycle. Like I did not need a license to drive it.
Even to some if you try to explain it they don't listen, or hear you. The presumption is that you got a "Little Mo-ped, or toy". I am now in my third month of ownership. I just reached 1600 miles on my "Mo-ped" LOL. I could not be happier.
I went from 11mpg (big 4x4) to around 60, and now enjoy my drive into, and back from work. I find reasons to ride the long way in. On weekends I go for 50-60 mile rides. I guess they (the mo-ped namers) will never understand. When it gets down to it that is OK.
I am now at the point where it does not matter what my scooter is called, or by whom. I am having to much fun to worry.

[Traggy]

Hi everybody,

I write you from Spain and it looks incredible to me that a Vespa , if i have understand correctly, is considered a kind of second class two-wheels-machine.

I live in Barcelona, and I grant you that a scooter is the fastest and easyest way to move in the city ( faster than Subway, tram, buses or wahtever other boring mass-transport ). I must recognize that car drivers don't like us very much ( specially in traffic jams when they are stopped and see you passing by ). but they don't consider us like a " moped", we are more like the " enemy "

Everybody, change their mind, and ride proud of your Vespas