Old, but still Green.

There is a growing trend amongst older people to exchange their cars for mobility scooters.

There are a variety of reasons for moving away from car ownership: the ever-increasing costs of fuel, maintenance, insurance, registration. Many of us also begin to worry about our ability to cope with the increased amount of traffic on the roads, and our ability to control a car in an emergency, or even in an every-day situation where we need to react quickly.

But think of the transition from the environmental point-of-view.

The scooter is completely electric, so aligns with the increasing emphasis on electric cars and the all-electric society.

Scooters don’t create pollution. There are no emissions to damage the environment or worry about.

Scooters don’t make a loud noise, don’t damage roads so they need constant repair, don’t need vast car parks, and can be charged up from normal home electricity supplies overnight.

Sounds good to me!

True, a scooter does not have the speed nor range of a car, but then most of us oldies are slowing down a bit and we mostly have no great need to get anywhere in a hurry. So slow down, take life easier, get out of the rat-race. And the fresh air is always better for us than being enclosed in an air-conditioned steel box.

When driving cars we isolate ourselves from our surroundings. Other people are set well apart from us, each of us cocooned in our own steel and plastic jacket, insulated from contact with others.

But riding a scooter is ‘people-friendly’. People using the footpaths on scooters themselves, walking their dogs or just walking, riding bikes, will stop and talk to me, particularly as my scooter is a bit unusual.

So, all you oldies out there, join the green revolution, be more environmentally and socially aware and friendly, get rid of your noisy, polluting, fuel-guzzling, dangerous car, and climb aboard an all-electric mobility scooter.

See you around the paths and byways of Canberra.

Give me a wave or stop and chat.