High gas prices propel a new ‘moped madness’

Scooters and mopeds see a rise in sales – and cachet – thanks in part to a youth energy ethic.

ATLANTA

Four years later, Mr. Biek is still hooked. “Once you ride one, you have to have one,” he says. “It’s consumed my entire life, and I have no real explanation for it.”

The moped and its bigger, flashier cousin, the scooter, are swarming out of Jimmy Carter’s America and into George W. Bush’s republic – a movement propelled by soaring gasoline prices surpassing those of the late 1970s and by legions of Americans who take seriously the call for oil independence. If the serious intent is mixed with a little fun from “moped gangs” who call themselves the Heck’s Angels or the Hardly Davidsons, so much the merrier.

Christian Science Monitor