Every dollar is worth it

With soaring fuel prices, one has to wonder how much mileage you get on a car. People are resorting to ride share or using the metro, to cut down the fuel expenses. Take the fuel prices and compound it with the growing recession and bad economy, and one gets to think twice before making any road trip. This has lead to the growth of scooters and motorcycle usage. Scooters costs about $1000 to $10,000 and motorcycles cost about $3000 to more than $10,000, depending on the model and they can use fuel or electric charge and can give up to 35 miles per charge or fuel tank.

One thing that I miss here in the US versus in India, is the freedom to take my bike (I don’t mean the bicycle and we, Indians call the motorcycles as bike) around to get the shopping done. Maybe it be going to school or college, or a trip to the bookstore or picking up a few items that mom needed at the groceries, I would take my Kinetic Honda (similar to scooters here) or my brothers Hero Honda (motorcycle). Helmet there is for safety but not many wears them and I did not wear it for my short local trips. Now-a-days, it is a law even in India, to wear the helmet when you are on main roads.

Using the scooter or motorcycle is convenient and quick and you can get return on every dollar on fuel. I now see a few bikes around here in the US where high school or college students use it around the campus or make short trips to the library or groceries. My routine or trips, apart from going to work from Centreville to Ashburn, revolves around my home. I take Yash to school, which is about a mile from home and then to his classes like Kumon, Tae-kwon-do, Chess club, and Soccer in and around 5 mile radius near the house. My library, groceries, gym and other shops is within the same range.

Even if I use my car to go to work (if I go on the bike with helmet, I would end up with a bad hairdo day), I could still use the bike to run my local errands for myself or for Yash. I would have to buy an extra helmet for the passenger and figure out a place to store them within the bike when the bike is parked. This would cut down on fuel expenses tremendously, in this ever rising fuel prices and growing recession. Parking becomes easier, and traffic grids can be avoided as well. If you have a motorcycle that is well-built, you can even take it to work to and from, as far as D.C. Bikes can be used from early spring to late fall but not a good choice in terms of safety, in winter and during rainy days. Seeing how much of a snow we get in our area, we can use bikes more often for convenience and inexpensive means of transportation.