Scooter

Electric skateboards everywhere!

It seems every day a different, new-age gadget goes rolling past me in the Proctor District. These battery-powered means of transportation are quieter and faster than before and it’s time for me to take a closer look. The high-end models are typically not available in local retail stores so we will take to the interwaves to find them.

You may have seen someone on an electric skateboard and not even known it. The remote controls are now wireless and often fit inside the palm of your hand. Without further ado, let’s take a look at some of these boards you’ve seen buzzing around the neighborhood.

HINT: If you you see someone going swiftly uphill on a skateboard while standing idle on the deck, they are riding an electric skateboard.

GT Powerboard
Off Road Electric Skateboard
$1,339.00

0-23mph in 5 seconds!
45 x 11 inches
15 mile range on flats
72 pounds with battery

Maxfind Dual Motor
Electric Skateboard
$599.00

10 mile range
38″ x 10″
60 minute run time
12.1 pounds

Tacoma: Scootertown, USA

I recently bought a scooter. Originally for neighborhood travel only, it quickly became about much more than just the post office, the bank, and the grocery store. Within a week I’d traveled the freeway and traversed the Narrows Bridge. In an instant, the scooter became my preferred means of transportation. If it’s not raining, I’m scootin. I can’t afford to drive my car any longer, seeing as how the gas gauge on my scooter doesn’t seem to move. So far I’ve filled up twice with supreme unleaded gasoline (currently over $4 per gallon in Tacoma) and it’s set me back a grand total of $17. How does 75 miles per gallon sound?

With events like 4th of July and the Tall Ships Festival on the waterfront, the Taste of Tacoma and Zoobilee at Point Defiance, or anything you can think of downtown, in the Stadium district or 6th Ave, a scooter just makes so much sense. Parking is never an issue. Traffic is never an issue. If you can stand to leave the dog at home and you aren’t happening by Home Depot for a home improvement haul, life is surprisingly doable on a scooter. Recent advances in technology even made it possible for me to safely transport a fresh iced latte 12 blocks in an earlier, controlled experiment.

Time to shake up your spring and summer! If you need something to perk you up in the morning, to send you to work with a smile and bring you home with an ear-to-ear grin, stop into Northwest Motor Scooters near 56th Street & South Tacoma Way and have Shana show you a scooter or two. They sell Vespa, Aprilia, Piaggio and Kymco scooters. I bet you find something in there that fits your style, your needs, your wants, your dreams…