solve this motor scooter/bicycle helmet mystery

Factual Questions
1

Where I live there are a lot of people riding bicycles and
motor scooters. I would say 7 out of 10 bicyclers I see
are wearing a helmet. I have never seen anyone riding a
motor scooter wearing a helmet. I talked to another person
about this and he said he agrees with the 7 out of 10
bicyclers wearing a helmet, and also he has only ever seen
one motor scooter rider wearing a helmet. What could
explain this difference in helmet wearing proportion?

2

It may be a legality loophole/oversight.

Here in Seattle, bicycles/scooters/motorcycles are all classed as different vehicles (i.e. you don’t need a motorcycle certification to ride a scooter). Additionally, they are treated independently with regards to helmet laws. Here, motorcycle helmets are a state law, while bike-helmet laws are at the city level and vary depending on where in the state you are. Dunno about scooters and helmets here. But that could definitely explain the disparity in helmet use…

3

I wear a helmet on both… and that’s what the law requires.

4

By “motor scooter” are you referring to small motorcycles with gasoline engines, sometimes referred to as mopeds? Just wanted to check, since the word “scooter” seems to refer to many different vehicles.

And where do you live? Where I live (Tokyo) most people on scooters (mopeds) wear helmets because they are required to by law, but almost none of the bicycle riders do.

5

A scooter is a smallish motorcycle with small wheels with a protective board in front and under your feet as can be seen [here](http://www.eurocentres.com/ eng/school/italy/). A moped could be a scooter, but doesn’t have to. The word, actually, is a contraction of the word motorvelociped = motorised bicycle.

6

It has to be a lack of law because those scooters are a brand new thing… I have a bunch of kids in my neighborood riding those things and they do go fast enought to require a helmet…

7

Brand new? Well, sure, if you mean “at least twenty years old”. Heck, I had a scooter Go-Bot when I was a kid in the early 80s. Maybe they’re just now becomming common in America?

8

Part of it may be with the way people ride each vehicle. Cyclists tend to stay to the right of the road as not to impead vehicle traffic. Unfortunatlly people in cars tend to think that bikes are not allowed in the road and should be on the sidewalk(which is wrong). And usually treat cyclists with contempt and don’t give them the right of way. If you ride a bike a lot you will usually encounter an asshole in a car, and you realize that you could get hurt bad, thus the helmet. People in scooters usually ride in the middle of the road and are treated as vehicular traffic.

9

Thanks for the replies. In answer to some questions:
No one over 18 is required to wear a helmet when riding
a bicycle or motor scooter where I live.
I suspect 95 percent of the people I see on either are
over 18.
This webpage has pictures of what I call a “motor scooter”
http://staff.washington.edu/shortwav/
One suggestion I have as a possible answer is that people
who ride motor scooters are more concerned with convienence
than bicyclers, and wearing a helmet might be considered
an inconvienence. But I still don’t feel the disparity has
been explained. Perhaps I would need to do a survey to
sort it out. But alas, I don’t have sufficient motivation
to go to all that trouble.

10
      • Most all the scooters I see locally (IL, USA) are Hondas. I don’t know anyone who has one right off, so I dunno if they require a scooter or motorcycle license. Normal scooters and mopeds don’t need licenses if they have less than 2 HP, but they also cannot be used on the interstates, and I know I’ve seen people riding Honda scooters on the interstates. Euro/Vespa scooters are dinky cheap things, but the Hondas are bigger, have more power and are built as nice as a regular Japanese motorcycle. I have often seen one guy riding the same Honda scooter around town for about six or seven years now.
  • I wear a bicycle helmet because the rearview mirrors stick onto the helmet, and you can easily look around behind you, something very valuable in city traffic. Rear-view mirrors mounted on the bicycle vibrate around too much, and never seen to be positioned to show you what you want to see all the time, or you have to turn the handlebars, which may not be possible at the moment when you need to see. - MC