When it comes to personal transportation for short to medium-range trips, you have many options available in today’s world. Scooters, bicycles, skateboards, rollerblades, mopeds, and other types transport yourself, your family, and any gear you need to bring from point A to point B.
These modes of transportation each have their place, but when it comes to daily commuting, like to and from work for example, or for your kids to make it to and from their school every day, two main types are the most popular and come highly recommended. Those are bicycles and scooters.
We include both the kick-powered and electric-powered versions when we talk about scooters. While we will try to make that distinction as often as possible to keep things clear, we may fall short of saving space because it should be obvious what we are talking about in that case.
If we take a step back and look at the competition between the scooter and a bicycle, we see many aspects and angles that are very similar and can see how they differ significantly.
Environment:
For starters, they both are great for the environment and are wonderfully green technologies. They produce minimal emissions to manufacture and take even fewer emissions to power them with enough energy to transport us from one place to another. With all bicycles and kick-powered scooters, a good meal in your stomach is all you need to power them enough to take you to work or the grocery store. That is because all their energy comes straight from your body.
However, with electric scooters, you need to plug them in and how your energy is created in your area determines the number of emissions produced to power it for travel. Suppose you pay extra for wind power or have installed solar panels on your home. In that case, you probably produce minimal emissions to power your scooter and can confidently ride it, knowing you are being kind to the environment.
Price:
The cost for scooters varies greatly depending on which type you want to buy. If we are talking about a kick-powered scooter, they can go from cheap for a typical little kids model to quite spendy for a professional-grade dirt or trick scooter full of aftermarket parts and pieces.
On the other hand, if we look at electric-powered scooters, their price varies more widely than the kick-powered scooters. You can get a simple, less powerful electric scooter for around a hundred dollars. You can get a high-end electric scooter with the most modern technology, the most powerful electric motor, and the most modern battery technology for a thousand dollars or more.
Then, bicycles are not much different in the amount they cost to purchase initially. There are little kid’s and teen bikes that you can get for less than a hundred bucks, but there are also top-of-the-line street or mountain bikes for adults that can easily cost a thousand dollars or more. That does not even include all the safety equipment like helmets or elbow pads, accessories, lights, tools, outfits, and everything else that can purchase a bicycle.
Comfort:
The comfort level of a scooter or bicycle can depend on quite a bit on how well the model you obtained fits your body type. Some scooters meant for larger individuals may be too much for a teenage kid to handle correctly, and some bicycles can be too small for a larger individual, especially for those smaller bike seats.
For comfort reasons, a scooter needs to fit your height just as much as your overall body size. For example, a scooter without adjustable handlebars can have them set to a height that does not meet your height, making taking longer trips on it uncomfortable and energy-draining. Therefore, it is essential to pick a scooter or bike that fits you.
You may find more adjustments in scooters than you will in bicycles. While bicycle seats may move up and down, allowing the length of legs to match the pedal distance from the seat, scooters offer many more adjustments: seat adjustment, handlebar height, handlebar angle, and even suspension adjustments for giving a smooth ride for anyone’s body size.
Safety:
Both bicycles and scooters are only as safe as the operator. You are required to know the road rules when riding either one. One of the things you need to learn before riding is how to signal your turns with your arms(unless you have a scooter with turn signal lights).
You also need to know your place on the road. Are you allowed to ride in the street with the cars, bike lanes, or on the sidewalk? These rules even vary by state, county, and city or town. So, when going from one city to another, you need to know all the laws/rules for riding that particular type of vehicle there. For example, in Atlanta, GA, and Washington, D.C., you cannot ride scooters on any sidewalk, bike lane, or street. They are outlawed, and you will get a ticket if caught riding there. Then, you will be forced to walk your scooter back across city lines to a neighboring city before riding it again. Still, you can ride a bicycle on the roadway when there is no bike land, and in a bike lane when available, which is another example of how riding a scooter is different from riding a bicycle.
Finally, you need to know the PPE laws in the areas you plan to ride. For example, do you need a helmet to ride a scooter you may rent sitting on the street corner? Plus, you should know the laws on riding a bicycle with or without a helmet and what lights you need when riding in low light conditions.
Maintenance:
Maintenance is another area where these two distinct types of transportation machines differ. For starters, just about anyone can fix most issues with a bicycle, like tightening spokes, adjusting the brakes, fixing a broken brake cable, changing a tire, adjusting the seat, replacing the chain, greasing the bearings, and oiling the chain/gears.
On the other hand, you probably need a professional scooter service when maintaining an electric scooter, which can get extremely complicated and too much for many folks to handle.
Although, if you are riding on a kick scooter, you can most likely perform any maintenance necessary to keep it on the road by yourself. So, it boils down to if you are taking care of a bicycle or a kick-powered scooter.
You or someone in your household most likely will be able to do any of the needed work on your own. Still, if you are working with an electric motor-powered scooter, you most likely will need to hire a professional to do most work on it, making the maintenance of an electric scooter more expensive. Still, you need to consider how infrequent you will need maintenance work on one of these transportation machines.
Gear & Hardware:
There are plenty of accessories and aftermarket parts you can purchase for either of these modes of transportation. For a bicycle, there are also accessories like lights, dedicated clothing, special shoes and pedals that lock together, mountable water bottles and tool kits, or other items that you can add to your bike, including kid’s bike trailers, for example. You can buy these extras on your bike to make it more street-worthy, noticeable, and maintainable while on the go.
Then, when it comes to scooters, you can buy many of the same accessories and gear. Although, there is no dedicated clothing or shoes for riding a scooter. Besides that one example, everything you can buy for a bicycle, another version of that accessory is made for a scooter. The tool kits are the only place where the two would vary to any noticeable degree. A toolkit for a bike would be a different size and shape than a scooter because it would require a different set of tools to work on. The gear for both is closely related except for the clothing and shoes of a bike rider.
Mobility & Speed:
The average bike rider can go about 10 MPH on a road bike, while a professional bicycle racer can go 25 MPH or more on the same bike. Now, an electric scooter can go up to 30 MPH or more. Keep in mind that things like large hills will affect the speed of either one, but with a bike, that speed being affected means tired and burning leg muscles while on an electric scooter. It is just a strained motor. Plus, a bike’s speed depends on the rider’s health. A bike is a great way to start if you want to get into shape.
Regarding mobility, a scooter is usually designed for riding in a specific terrain, like a dirt scooter or a street scooter, which is remarkably similar to how bikes are set up with mountain and road bikes. So, this is just one more way these two modes of transportation are like each other.
You can now see the different aspects of these transportation devices that allow you to travel around your city, town, or anywhere else without producing any carbon emissions. There are similarities and differences between these two types of machines, and now you know what those are and can make an educated decision as to which device is best for you and your situation.