Gay Street Parking Lot Opens For Scooters

By: Walker

87 Comments

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  blammo July 17, 2008 11:45 am

  Yeah, I don’t expect everyone to stop driving their cars & start riding scooters or motorcycles. It’s just nice to have a transportation alternative recognized & accommodated.

  I think it’s more interesting how the Dispatch article inserted that little zinger in the middle of the article with no other mention or explanation. Did they really ask the mayor or his driver how many cylinders his car has? What was the reporter driving to get to work? How about all the other people at the conference? Who cares? What is this article about anyway? :roll:
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  Motorist July 17, 2008 11:48 am

  admonius wrote “The mayor, who rode his bicycle to City Hall during Ride to Work Week in May, arrived at a news conference on Gay Street to introduce the parking areas in an eight-cylinder Mercury Grand Marquis.”

  How dare the mayor preach to Columbus residents about changing their driving habits as he continues to ride around in a eight-cylinder, gas-guzzling, air-polluting Mercury Grand Marquis. And he considers himself the “green mayor? Perhaps this is just another example of “do as I say, not as I do.

  If you’re going to drive an eight cylinder gas guzzler, he could at least roll in more style than a Mercury. The only thing uglier is a Buick.

  Just for shits and giggles, I looked the Grand Marquis on MSN Autos. They get 17 city mpg and 25 highway mpg. By comparison, my 4 cylinder car is EPA rated at only 20 and 27 (though I recently got 37 mpg on the highway recently).

  A 2007 Grand Marquis MSRP was 25-30K. Blue Book value on them now is 13.5-15K!
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  Rockmastermike July 17, 2008 11:53 am

  blammo wrote

  I think it’s more interesting how the Dispatch article inserted that little zinger in the middle of the article with no other mention or explanation.

  I find it interesting that this same user has inserted this little zinger into the middle of two separate threads now.
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  blammo July 17, 2008 11:56 am

  Rockmastermike wrote
  

  blammo wrote

  I think it’s more interesting how the Dispatch article inserted that little zinger in the middle of the article with no other mention or explanation.

  I find it interesting that this same user has inserted this little zinger into the middle of two separate threads now.

  To his/her defense, they are obviously just trying to get as much mileage out of that one quote as possible. That’s “green”, right?
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  Rockmastermike July 17, 2008 12:02 pm

  blammo wrote

  To his/her defense, they are obviously just trying to get as much mileage out of that one quote as possible. That’s “green”, right?

  I dunno. I can’t really hear what he’s saying over the sound of grinding axes.
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  Emar Tino July 17, 2008 2:23 pm

  I was at the press conference. The Mayor did not ride in the car by himself. Before criticizing the Mayor on his vehicle choice, think about the numbers. If the Mayor travels to the press conference with his assitant and press secretary, then 3 people arrived via 1 single vehicle. While the scooter may get 4x the gas mileage of the Mercury, if you need 3x the number of vehicles then it isn’t that much more “green” to ride the scooter.

  Also, what if he had an appointment across town immediately after the press conference? Had to transport something in the trunk for a meeting? Or, where did he come from before hand? Or did he use his travel time in the car to get other work done (preparing for the press conference, conferencing with his fellow passengers or others via cell phone)? All these things are hard to do when on a scooter. I know, because I ride my Vespa nearly all the time, but occassionally I need to use a car.

  I think the article zinger was inappropriate as it suggested hypocrisy without actually examining the issue.
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  glenn July 17, 2008 2:40 pm

  I’m sure the city fleet of vehicles include cars that are more fuel efficient than an eight-cylinder Mercury Grand Marquis and are capable of seating at least three persons. and
  

  Emar Tino wrote I was at the press conference. The Mayor did not ride in the car by himself. Before criticizing the Mayor on his vehicle choice, think about the numbers. If the Mayor travels to the press conference with his assitant and press secretary, then 3 people arrived via 1 single vehicle. While the scooter may get 4x the gas mileage of the Mercury, if you need 3x the number of vehicles then it isn’t that much more “green” to ride the scooter.

  Also, what if he had an appointment across town immediately after the press conference? Had to transport something in the trunk for a meeting? Or, where did he come from before hand? Or did he use his travel time in the car to get other work done (preparing for the press conference, conferencing with his fellow passengers or others via cell phone)? All these things are hard to do when on a scooter. I know, because I ride my Vespa nearly all the time, but occassionally I need to use a car.

  I think the article zinger was inappropriate as it suggested hypocrisy without actually examining the issue.
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  catnfiddle July 17, 2008 2:54 pm

  Meanwhile, this thread has been completely derailed, and all I want is for Rockmastermike to use the new scooter parking as an excuse to take me to Tip Top for a cheesesteak and maybe those yummy salmon fritters.
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  Rockmastermike July 17, 2008 2:57 pm

  glenn wrote I’m sure the city fleet of vehicles include cars that are more fuel efficient than an eight-cylinder Mercury Grand Marquis and are capable of seating at least three persons. and

  seriously. It’s scraping the bottom of the barrel. I’m sure we can find better things to pick on the guy about. This is just silly. 17mpg*4passengers= 68 passenger miles/gal.

  Yeah, he could have come in alone on a vespa and matched that. Then you would have criticized him for not riding two-up. Or for not riding the 50cc vespa instead of the 150cc vespa.

  OR, the city (and this was a comision, not “the mayor” who did this, credit where credit is due) could have just continued writing tickets to scooters and ignoring the cycle parking issue altogether, pushing people into cars and making things worse. But they did not.

  Now I’m not going to fault 4 people who used a total of 1/17 of a gallon of gas to get to a photo op when they COULD have vetoed the whole idea and saved that 1/17 gallon and stayed home.

  Is this the best thing the mayor’s opponents can find to criticize him about? I’m sure we could find much better things if we tried! If you guys cannot then we are very very lucky indeed.

  I didn’t think much of the guy at first, but I have to say I’ve really come to think highly of him because of his support for positive changes like the one this thread is about.
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  lifeliberty July 17, 2008 2:57 pm

  from the pointless arguements against the mayor it is seen that some people will never be satisfied. If people can’t see that the good the mayor has done for city has outweighed the point of him driving a car(which gets better mileage than my Bronco) there, they aren’t going to be happy with anything and will look at any aspect(however minimal) to criticize the mayor.
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  Rockmastermike July 17, 2008 2:59 pm

  glenn wrote I’m sure the city fleet of vehicles include cars that are more fuel efficient than an eight-cylinder Mercury Grand Marquis and are capable of seating at least three persons. and

  Also, you can stop creating sockpuppet accounts. I don’t know if walker would appreciate that.
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  Mercurius July 17, 2008 3:03 pm

  There is an area on Lynn Alley (next to the Scientologist :lol: :lol: ) marked off for motorcycle/scooter parking.

  
  View Larger Map
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  blammo July 17, 2008 3:06 pm

  Exactly, who gives a shit what kind of car he drives? The guy supports scooter parking but doesn’t drive a scooter. Does that make him a hypocrite? Would he have seemed more “honest” if he borrowed a scooter just for the press conference & then jumped back into his car to head to a meeting?

  I can see there’s some sort of effort to tie this into the whole “price of gas” issue, but people have been riding scooters & motorcycles for years, long before gas was so expensive. Parking is this particular issue, not fuel consumption.
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  lifeliberty July 17, 2008 3:08 pm

  blammo wrote Parking is this particular issue,.

  and traffic congestion

  both great areas to have some relief in.
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  Emar Tino July 17, 2008 3:10 pm

  How many miles per gallon does a high-horse get?
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  Rockmastermike July 17, 2008 3:20 pm

  Emar Tino wrote How many miles per gallon does a high-horse get?

  A horse is a horse, of course of course,

  and who knows the millage a high-horse boasts?

  that is of course, unless the horse,

  Is the famous Mister Ed!
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  lifeliberty July 17, 2008 3:22 pm

  Emar Tino wrote How many miles per gallon does a high-horse get?

  depends on price of hay!
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  von July 17, 2008 3:22 pm

  i personally wouldnt care if Coleman drives a tank, not far off – all i care about is that we can ride our scooters and motorcycles downtown with ease. plenty of free parking (1 year) and close to work.

  2 thumbs up to the Mayor. :D
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  Walker July 17, 2008 9:07 pm

  Mercurius wrote There is an area on Lynn Alley (next to the Scientologist :lol: :lol: ) marked off for motorcycle/scooter parking.

  The Scientologists are moving and that space actually has a for sale (or lease?) sign in the window.
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  Columbusite July 18, 2008 2:48 am

  Hope something good moves in. Still waiting for something to go in the Arby’s space. :?