Long a familiar sight on the roads of Europe and Asia, motorized scooters are still relatively rare in the United States. While much of the world views them as a practical – and often stylish – necessity, they’ve occupied more of a niche market in the car-centric US, where scooter riders were perhaps justifiably seen as more concerned with fashion than with function.

But the scooter’s image is evolving, and scooter numbers are rising: Scooter sales in the US have jumped dramatically in recent years, from roughly 20,000 units sold in 1999 to over 150,000 in 2006.

While the rising price of gasoline is generally seen as the main cause of that jump – depending on engine size, scooters can get 50 to 100 miles per gallon – the boom is also being fueled by frustrations with traffic jams, an aging population that is trading down from heavier two-wheelers, and what one longtime industry observer terms the “culturization” of scooters.

[Read](http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0321/p12s01-stgn.html “Read the Article”) (Christian Science Monitor)