cce blog

scooter commuter

My commute each morning begins with a brisk walk up Broadway, crossing the Harlem River to the Bronx's Marble Hill Station. Starting from my new apartment at 207th Street, this trip takes about 13 minutes at a fast "I can't miss the goddamn train again" pace.

It usually ends with a close call, and if I'm lucky, the train arrives just as I get down to the platform. If I'm NOT lucky, however, I usually end up halfway across the Broadway Bridge cursing whilst admiring a spectacular view of my train chugging away along the river. This has happened to me more than a few times. It's the worst.

Simply leaving earlier would work for some, sure, but probably not me. Thus the next best solution is something with wheels. Here are some options I found:

• Roller Shoes. So cool! In HK the latest kids' sneaker fad was shoes with a big wheel in the heel, so if you leaned back you could use the heel-wheel to glide a few feet each step. I never ended up getting a pair for some reason.
  
• Strap-over-your-shoes inline skates. Probably a bad idea, because, lacking in-line skating skills, I might run into things. Actually, this can be said for the roller shoes too. These nicer clip-on inline skates and these "Italian-made" black leather roller boots are out of the running too for this reason. And these two-wheeled clip-ons would be cool if they didn't just hook on to ski boots.
  
• A bike or electric bike. This could work. Plus I already have a bike, so no purchase necessary. But then I'd have to either a] take it on the train or b] park it in the Bronx somehow. Neither option is desirable.
  
• Electric skateboard. WHAT? they MAKE these? It's almost like "Back to the Future"! This is very cool but I will certainly hurt myself on one of these.
  
• A foldable scooter like the Xootr. Hey, this seems like a good solution. Electric scooters are very cool, but too pricy. And I won't break myself: if this 73-year-old guy commutes 10 miles every day on a Xootr, maybe I should give a try. Plus it's an "adult scooter" so I don't have to hunch down to reach the handlebars. See how much bigger it is than a Razor?
  

Okay, so a scooter it is. Or was ... I did all this online scooter-shopping last Friday, when it was still nice outside. It's freezing now! Are scooters just a summer thing? As it gets colder will I still want to scoot around?

Posted by cce at September 3, 2003 08:41 PM | TrackBack