Once you’ve got one, you can’t think of not having one. Well, it could be a Vespa or any scooter or motorized two wheels.

Today, I had to bring in my Vespa LX150 to get a flat tire replaced. That meant dropping off the scooter at the shop and then busing back home. A few hours later, when it was done, I had to bus back down to the shop and scoot home.

Riding the bus made me remember a few things…
* Public transportation really saves on general gas consumption per person, especially when it’s natural gas (which I don’t think was the case today).
* Buses are dirty.
* Buses have a wide variety of human characters, including a woman who sat next to me and had old school headphones on, with techno music blasting through them. So far so good. She slided back the headphone off one ear and started talking. I was thinking hmm, she’s on the phone. But the music was still blasting and although I couldn’t understand what she was saying, she seemed to be repeating the same thing over and over again, with the same laugh at the end. So, after hearing the same foreign phrase about 10-20 times, I understood that nope, she wasn’t on the phone. Just had the same thing to say out loud over and over again and it seemed to be funny.
* It took me 10 minutes to walk to and from my 20 minute bus ride. The walk was nice but the whole trip took forever!!
* Buses smell. I actually hold my breath anytime I see an obviously very dirty person come my way.
* I don’t like riding the bus
* I love my Vespa.

And I’ll say it again: I love my Vespa! The trip home took me 8 awesome minutes instead of 30-40 minutes by bus. I have full control over my route, I feel the air, considering other vehicles I use a limited amount of gas, I feel in touch with the city and its streets, I am in an active mode and I can park it anywhere.

Seriously, once you have one, there’s not way to conceive getting around town without one.