A new phenomenon in NYC: chicks on scooters

I dug around, and noticed an article on the rise of scooters in NYC:
http://nyscooterclub.com/press/09SCOOT.html

I was particularly struck by the authors comment, "Scooters are widely accepted in Europe and Asia, but in America, where bigger is often viewed as better, the zippy two-wheelers have had trouble gaining traction."

I'll paraphrase: scooters are cute, and made for women. But not in NYC, where traffic is so fast, and reaction time is too critical for most women's nerves. Why then, are there suddenly so many more females riding about on scooters? I have 3 theories:

1) Gas prices
The obvious one to blame, but clearly as gas prices rise, 2 wheeled transportation in general seems more attractive. But that doesn't alone explain why so many more women are riding around. Anecdotally speaking, the number of female scooter riders now appears to outnumber the male riders, so the trend is definitely significant.

2) Scooter marketing
There's a new store downtown, and they're running ads all over the city for scooter sales. But that alone can't account for the rise, because that's just stupid to buy into everything just because it's marketed well :-)

3) European invasion
This is my favorite theory. It goes like this: the US dollar is weak, so Europeans in general are visiting the city more. This much is true. Also, more of them are coming over for the summers, and maybe more are actually deciding to come over a live, maybe even work here. As women come over - especially younger women - they are accustomed to riding their scooters around in Europe, where it is an acceptable practice for women to do. So they don't even think twice about jumping on one in NYC.

The odd thing is, women scooter riders (hereafter called women scooterers) are complete idiots. The image of riding on a cute little scooter is so important to them that they throw caution and safety out the window:

• Women scooterers don't wear full face helmets, they wear half helmets. Have fun when you fall on your chin! Don't think you'll get hurt? Do an experiment then: rub your chin at 5 mph over the sidewalk, and see if you get any scars. Now imagine what it's like at 30 mph. Yay!
  
• Women scooterers wear skirts. This is just plain stupid. There must be someone who can confirm a rise in road rash at NYC ER's? Anyone? This is the one here that I don't care too much, because in general these riders tend to be skinny, and have attractive figures, so it's at least nice to look at legs in any case. But every time I see them, I cringe and have a mental image of one of those bloody scenes from Saving Private Ryan.
  
• Women scooterers wear black. Because black is trendy and hip, they wear precisely the color they should wear if they want to be INVISIBLE!
• Women scooterers prefer tiny, cute scooters. Instead of the ones that would give the accelerating power to get out of the way of that cab bearing down on you.
• Women scooterers are sporadic and unpredictable. There's a difference between weaving and dodging to get attention, and drifting in and out, left and right, because you just don't know how to pilot a vehicle in a straight line. I don't know the solution to this one, but maybe attending a training course and actually learning the art of riding is a good place to start, no?

In summary, if you're a woman living in NYC, and you ride a scooter, take it from a fellow 2-wheeled advocate: other people are looking at you, and think you're an idiot. Learn about rider safety, learn to ride a 2-wheeled vehicle, get some hi-viz gear at least (even pink will do), and if you absolutely must keep riding, don't ride on Madison or Lexington unless you want to die.

Please.