All-City Scooter Community Day, 2008

Scoot About’s parking lot is usually pretty empty on Saturdays. Not today!

Orin O’Neill photos

Seattle’s All-City Scooter Community Day filled the former used car lot at Westlake and Mercer. Not only was the weather beautifully warm and sunny, most of the scooters and riders were ones I didn’t recognize.

The Vespa Club of Seattle, the Westenders, SQREAM and the Seattle Area Ruckus Group Northwest Ruckus Alliance had displays on the midway, as did Vespa Seattle, Soundspeed Scooters and others.

Seattle City Councilmember Jan Drago spoke briefly; getting the biggest response was her news that the City Council would be considering legislation to make moving a parked scooter a crime. This is a particular problem on Capitol Hill, though it happens throughout the city. Drago is chair of the City Council’s transportation committee.

On another sore subject for scooterists, the condition of Seattle’s streets, Drago told me the city has more money than ever to spend on resurfacing and repairing streets, there just isn’t enough time and manpower to do them all at once.

More impressive than the sheer number of scooters was the wide variety of makes and models. The many Vespas and Piaggios were joined by Honda Ruckuses, Yamaha Morphuses, and even examples of the reborn Lambretta.

Kurt from Café Racer was cooking hotdogs, and there were raffle prizes being given away during the event. It concluded with multiple group rides led by the clubs. A good time appeared to have been had by all. You can see a photo gallery here.

One more thing: those of you who were wondering if you’d be able to get a Vespa S in orange, wonder no more:

UPDATE: Read more about it here and here.

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