I got my first scooter when I was 15 years old. It was a 49cc Honda Spree that I bought off my older brother (who did all the parental convincing work) once he got his automobile drivers license and I rode it like a maniac, as boys are wont to do when they are in their teens but never got in an accident on it. I sold it after a year or two and periodically rode other people’s small motorcycles or scooters over the years, again accident-free. This spring, I bought myself another scooter, a mint green 150cc Stella (pictured) to replace my car now that I’m back in downtown Chicago. On Saturday, during the group ride of the Chicago Slaughterhouse scooter rally, my luck finally ran out and I was involved in a scooter accident.

My first scooter vs. scooter accident (or, as someone else described it, “scooter-on-scooter crime”) was all over, including the cleanup, in a matter of maybe two minutes. It was unfortunate but could easily have been much worse.

The ride included a run up almost the entire length of Lakeshore Drive, exiting at Foster. After exiting LSD, I was the first person to stop at the light at Marine Drive, the first light after you go under LSD. I had only been stopped for a couple of seconds when I heard what I now realize was The Other Guy’s tires skidding. He then clipped me on (I’m pretty sure) my left side as he went by and it felt like I got body-checked off my scooter onto my right side.

At that point, he completely lost control and went down, sliding past me for another 30 feet or so. The Other Guy (who shall remain anonymous, and he was a really nice guy, very apologetic, scraped up/shaken up a lot more than I was) said he didn’t see the light until it was too late to stop, then clipped me after he slammed on his brakes.

Other than a VERY sore right shoulder and some minor scrapes on my right elbow & bruises down the right side of my body, I’m fine. I didn’t really go down that hard since I was stopped when he hit me. Damage to my scooter was limited to the front fender & the right side cowl rail (full repairs will be ~$300, including parts & labor–mostly labor to remove the front forks).

I don’t know exactly who stopped to help, since I was busy making sure I was OK and everyone had helmets on so I couldn’t really see faces. Nevertheless, I’d like to thank everyone who stopped and lent assistance. The other riders had the intersection blocked almost immediately and were helping out with making sure we were OK and getting us out of traffic before I even really realized what had happened.

The experience has definitely made me re-prioritize buying and wearing a proper motorcycle jacket and other safety gear. If I’d been wearing a jacket, I’d have come away with only a single bruise on my knee. For The Other Guy, it would have made an even bigger difference since he had a lot more speed to convert into road rash.

Lessons Learn-able:

1. Safety Gear should be a maximum priority for all riders
   That includes more than just a helmet. While I’ve felt that a helmet was essential since I got my first scooter (when I was still young and thought I was bullet-proof), I’ll now expand the essential equipment list to include at least a riding jacket and a pair of gloves.

   In retrospect, I cannot explain why I was willing to mitigate the risk of cracking my skull open but accept the risk of bruising my muscles & scraping my skin off the rest of my body. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that I used to street skate and went down hard several times, sometimes with a lot of road rash, sometimes with none. This time around, though, it seems like it hurt a lot more than it did back then. This may just be a side effect of being Not Young.

2. Familiarity with your scooter makes a difference
   The Other Guy had only had his scooter for about 24 hours. He was not a new rider, but he was new to that scooter. That can’t have helped when things got exciting. It also must have made it suck even more to bang it up while it still had the “new” on it.

   Knowing my scooter didn’t make a difference in the accident, since I was blindsided, but I do believe that familiarity has helped me get over the shock of being in an accident. I know that every motorcycle and scooter dealer has stories of people who lay down their new bike in the first day or two and then never ride again.

3. Urban Riding is harder
   I think that people underestimate the difference in difficulty factor of urban vs. suburban or rural driving & riding. Living in closer proximity to Wrigley Field than I might really have chosen if I had it to do over, I can now spot the suburbanites in traffic just by the way they drive. They are much more likely to be in Information Overload and miss traffic clues which I would consider “obvious,” then have to react quickly as a result (e.g. stop signs & traffic lights, pedestrians/cyclists/skaters, vehicles entering & leaving the flow of traffic from street parking or alleys, double-parkers, car doors opening, cabs making pickups, etc.)

   Be aware of how familiar you are or aren’t with the environment you’re riding in. The first step to managing risk is realizing you’re at risk.

4. Rally riding is harder than normal riding
   When riding as part of a large group, there’s generally an incentive to push yourself to keep up with the group, especially if you’re not on familiar territory. This makes the Urban Riding risk worse, too. When we exited LSD on Foster, I was in no hurry to push my luck because I know that part of town pretty well, knew how to get to our destination, and also realized the ride would be over in just a few blocks. The other was from out-of-town, though, so he was maybe more focused on keeping up/not getting lost than I was (I’m guessing here, since I didn’t ask). I do know that he did not know how to get to Scooterworks since he asked me if I knew and how far it was.

Riding a motorcycle or scooter creates an interesting set of risks to be managed and (mostly) accepted. Wearing a helmet and safety gear goes a long way towards minimizing injury at low speeds or if a car isn’t involved. Since I mostly ride as transportation in downtown Chicago, I operate in traffic but at speeds of 30-35mph or less, usually more like 15-20mph, which, along with propery safety gear, helps mitigate the risk of serious injury if I do get in an accident.

As I noted above, however, the downside is that downtown is inherently a much more threat-dense environment than the suburbs. Lots more variety in the ways you can injure yourself if you’re not careful, so the risk probably doesn’t go down (if at all), just shifts itself from low-frequency, high impact to higher-frequency, lower-impact.

Regardless, I think it’s strange that if I’m on a motorcycle or scooter, I’m not leagally required to to have any protective gear but a pair of goggles or sunglasses, whereas if I’m driving a car I have a multitude of safety features like airbags, daytime running lights, anti-lock brakes, and am required by law to wear a seatbelt.

I wonder at the illogic of it all, but accept the risk just the same.

I originally posted most of this to the ChiScooterList mailing list

[…] What Chandler learned after a minor Stella collision at Slaughterhouse. Thanks for sharing! […]

Glad to hear you’re OK. I was one of the folks who stopped to assist as best I could. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[…] Australian artist Patricia Piccinini has created a family of mutated fiberglass scooters for her 2006 “Nest” exhibition. 2SB pal Christine describes it best as “Surreal, oddly endearing, and sentimental like Bambi” and we can’t top that. If your taste for art extends beyond the scooter-related, see more at Patricia Piccinini’s site. Her first U.S. exhibition opens tomorrow at the Des Moines Art Center, with a later stop in Seattle. (Thanks, Chandler.) […]

I guess you had to learn things the hard way. But at least you learned something from the accident. That’s the next best thing that could come out of it other than you’re alive. :)