Basic Scooter Safety Tips

Scooters are marketed as being easier to drive alternatives to motorcycles. Even though this may be the case, people driving scooters are subject to the same level of danger as are motorcycle riders.
In fact, many of the people who buy scooters purchase them specifically because they're uncomfortable with the complicated controls on a motorcycle, which sometimes means that they lack the level of skill that the average motorcycle driver has and are, therefore, at more risk of getting into a wreck.
Here are some basic scooter safety tips.

1: Know your limits.

It's very easy to hop onto a Scooter, twist the throttle and take off. When you're traveling at speed, two-wheeled vehicles are easier to drive. If you want to test your limits, try driving your scooter at a slow speed around a parking lot to learn how to balance the vehicle. It's best to take a motorcycle riding course, even though it may feel that you can just hop on a scooter and go.

2: You're going faster than you think.

When you're on a scooter, it's easy to forget that it's basically the same as riding on the hood of your car. If you hit something going 25 miles an hour, you're likely to get injured. Remember that, even if you have a small 50 cc scooter, it can get going fast enough to injure or kill you quite easily. Learn how to drive the vehicle; don't assume you know how to drive a motorized two-wheeled vehicle simply because you know how to drive a pedal bike.

3: The power is lacking.

A lot of the advertisements for scooters give top speeds that are only realistic if you're going downhill with a tailwind. Realize that you're not going to be welcome on fast-moving roads on these vehicles, in most cases. If you have a full-size scooter – 250 cc and up – you can keep up with traffic on a highway but, if you don't have that kind of engine capacity, stay off of roads with speed limits higher than 40 miles per hour.

4: Wear a helmet!

The automatic transmission, easy handling and light weight of a scooter do absolutely nothing to make the pavement softer. You are at an equal risk of sustaining a fatal head injury as a motorcycle driver on one of these vehicles. Be smart: wear a helmet.
If somebody injures you on your scooter due to negligent driving, contact a Dallas motorcycle accident attorney.