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by veave 1031 days ago
It's not snobbery, a cheap scooter like the one in that ad makes it much harder to kill yourself than a real motorcycle, which is why there is a different licence required.

Here, a scooter like that you can't even drive in a highway - restricting its use to a city makes it much safer.
2 comments
solatic 1031 days ago
That perspective, that scooters are somehow safer, isn't borne out in the data. In city after city we see mounting injuries and deaths, as usage and popularity increase. Consider https://news.sky.com/story/e-scooter-deaths-triple-this-year... and https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-scooter-crazed-tel-aviv-70-... (light Googling).

If one wishes to take the perspective that licensure helps prevent injuries and death, then apply the licensure requirements to these lighter vehicles too. If one prefers the perspective that all such transport is inherently risky, and thus prioritize personal responsibility and assumption of risk, then let's get rid of the licensure requirements, which will surely help get more people out of their 4-wheelers, with knock-on improvements for the environment, traffic congestion, and parking. My problem is with the arbitrary distinction in the middle.

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veave 1031 days ago
Those aren't the scooters we are talking about in this context. This is a scooter: https://motosnuevas.formulamoto.es/galeria/4671/Vespa_Primav...

They require a licence to drive, but the licence tests aren't as thorough as the tests to drive a motorcycle.

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jpc0 1031 days ago
I would love to see accident statistics that supports that claim.

Last time I looked at it small bikes, generally used by delivery drivers to be fair, vastly overshadowed any other motorcycle accidents.

On the same note death rates per vehicle on the road was lower for motorcycles than all other vehicle classes and a large portion of those deaths were passengers on a motorcycle and not the driver.

This was all from the mid 2010s though. The statistics showed more to me that wearing correct protection equipment significantly reduced your chance of dieing, the displacement of the engine or even the type of motorcycle had some impact but definitely wasn't a major factor.

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gog 1030 days ago
Are you sure that the statistics you looked into take into account number of vehicle on the road and miles/minutes traveled for each category?

Smaller bikes/scooters (you can drive them with a car license in my country if they are under 50cc) have a max top speed of 50km/h (31mph).

On the other hand, one of the most popular motorcycles (Yamaha MT-07) does 0-100km/h (0-60 mph) in under 4 seconds and can reach speeds of over 130 miles per hour. There is a lot that can go wrong if you are not careful. Also, it is almost twice as heavy.

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