It's a scooter (not a moped).

"Did you ride your moped to work today?"

"No."

Silence.

I look up to see the quizzical look. "I don't own a moped."

Silence.

Sigh. "I have a motor scooter. There are no pedals. 'mo-ped'. Ped is for pedals."


In my preliminary survey for scooter riders, I purposefully left a few questions vague because I wanted to see if other people were having the same conversations that I have with non-riders. The question is very poor for a proper survey, but it is helpful in determining some of the choices I will use for the formal survey in the next year or so. As of June 5, 2013; about a third of the respondents mentioned or vehemently complained about non-riders' insistence of calling scooters "moped".'

Pop star Zayn Malik, from the top 40 band One Direction, wrecked a Vespa when he wiped out on some gravel. Another member of the band, Liam Payne, said that Malik had "never ridden a moped before" the video shoot. One of the preliminary survey respondents clearly expressed the scooterist sentiment well, "Ughhhh, I HATE when they call it a moped."

Scooterists tightly mingle with moped riders and often own mopeds themselves. The frustration is not a disdain for mopeds but the frustration that non-riders seem unable to follow verbal cues offered by scooterists. Using the wrong term is like Endora on Bewitched always calling Darrin by assorted similar, yet incorrect names. To scooter riders, calling a scooter a moped is a matter of disrespect. Riders feel like the wrong terminology is dismissive of their lifestlyle and the machine. For vintage riders, the machines represent the perfect blend of modernization and style. For riders of modern scooters; scooters are powerful machines that are cross-country highway machines that often serve as our primary commute. Even in Roman Holiday, the classic scooter zipped and sang through the city streets. I do not recall a disappointing sputtering crawl through Rome.

So how do you respond when someone calls your scooter a "moped"?