Denver is very scooter friendly- updated

<--- poor quality phone pic of free scooter parking in downtown Denver. I'm in Denver this week to present at a computer security conference. I had some expectations about scooters and Denver. After all, I had read the articles about Denver's Vespa riding mayor. I had heard some rumors about easy parking and other scooter niceties.

Despite having read about it, I was still surprised when I walked out onto the street and saw scooters everywhere. Downtown there are plenty of the U-shaped bike locking thingies (you can see them next to the scoots in the pic). Scooters are parked at several of these per block. It was so refreshing to look down the street and see people actually giving up their cars, riding their scooters and getting good support from the city. Denver is definitely a leader here.

[UPDATED - It seems that sidewalk parking is limited to scooters 50cc and below, although it seems that this is enforced unevenly. I suspect that if you have a smaller bike it shouldn't be a problem. For example the Vespa LX 50 and LX 150 are the same size. I'd be very surprised to learn that police are looking making a distinction between the two models.]

Contrast this with the current situation in Seattle (which has lead the nation in other ways). To legally park your scooter in Seattle, you must park on the street, go to one of the new pay parking machines, put the sticker on your scoot and hope no one steals it (the sticker).

Like Denver, in most cases there is plenty of sidewalk space to park bikes and scoots without getting in the way. This is true downtown as well in an most neighborhoods. Anyone who lives in Seattle knows how hard it is to find parking in places like Ballard and Queen Anne. You can watch the cars go round, and round and round as they try to find a parking space.

I'll write more about Seattle and some of the things they are doing to try to reduce city car miles and how they might be able to make some small changes to make a big difference by making it a more scooter friendly city.

But now, I would like to hear from you. Do you know of other scooter friendly cities? Leave a comment or drop me an email.

David