What is the difference between motorcycles and Vespa scooters in terms of safety?
Speed. All but the smallest motorcycles have larger engines and can go faster than a Vespa scooter. Other than that, everything is nearly the same. Any rider on two wheels can choose to wear protective gear or not. Every rider chooses when, where, and how to ride. A properly trained, equipped, and careful rider on a souped up crotch rocket is safer than an untrained, poorly equiped, and reckless rider on a Vespa. It isn’t what you ride, it’s HOW you ride that makes you safe. Update 2006-03-03: I saw a newspaper article recently about a local teenager killed while riding a motor scooter. (The article didn’t mention the make or model but it did distinguish between scooters and motorcyles.) Apparently the teen (who had been drinking illegally) and his parents had been lulled into a false sense of security because it was only a “little scooter.” Unfortunately, the size of the engine didn’t matter to the car the kid pulled out in front of. The article didn’t mention if the teen had attended
