Opinion
Sick Trike
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The embarrassing electric tricycle that guy in the picture is riding set the City of Seattle back a cool $14,454. You can get a decent new car for that. In comparison, Segways run about $6,000, and the fully outfitted mountain bikes the police use cost $2,700.
But any one of those is a drop in the bucket compared to the big money wrapped up in parking tickets. As of 2008, Seattle police were issuing about 450,000 tickets per year, which, at $38 a pop , adds up to more than $17 million.
The price of that T3 Electric Mobility Vehicle is the equivalent of 380 parking tickets. With the average officer writing 20 tickets daily, that comes out to about 19 days' worth. Assuming half the ticket goes to paying for enforcement, you could argue that the T3 pays for itself in about two months.
Yet none of that even comes close to making up for how awesomely stupid those machines are.
They're expensive and big and heavy (300 pounds!) and mechanically complicated. They're imposing to pedestrians on sidewalks, and reportedly can't climb much of a hill—perfect for Seattle. There's nothing they can do that a bicycle can't do better, except, of course, for carrying a person who can't or doesn't want to ride a bicycle.
We've got bigger fish to fry—or more accurately, to keep from frying—yes, certainly, obviously. But the little things matter too, especially when they are so blatantly out of touch with the professed values of the city, and really, in this case, an affront to basic human common sense.
So then, good Mayor McGinn, can you please see to it that the City's fleet of T3s is put up for auction ebay ASAP? And once that's done, let's talk leaf blowers.
"We would use a steam shovel to pick up a dime."
-- Wendell Berry
[/caption]
The embarrassing electric tricycle that guy in the picture is riding set the City of Seattle back a cool $14,454. You can get a decent new car for that. In comparison, Segways run about $6,000, and the fully outfitted mountain bikes the police use cost $2,700.
But any one of those is a drop in the bucket compared to the big money wrapped up in parking tickets. As of 2008, Seattle police were issuing about 450,000 tickets per year, which, at $38 a pop , adds up to more than $17 million.
The price of that T3 Electric Mobility Vehicle is the equivalent of 380 parking tickets. With the average officer writing 20 tickets daily, that comes out to about 19 days' worth. Assuming half the ticket goes to paying for enforcement, you could argue that the T3 pays for itself in about two months.
Yet none of that even comes close to making up for how awesomely stupid those machines are.
They're expensive and big and heavy (300 pounds!) and mechanically complicated. They're imposing to pedestrians on sidewalks, and reportedly can't climb much of a hill—perfect for Seattle. There's nothing they can do that a bicycle can't do better, except, of course, for carrying a person who can't or doesn't want to ride a bicycle.
We've got bigger fish to fry—or more accurately, to keep from frying—yes, certainly, obviously. But the little things matter too, especially when they are so blatantly out of touch with the professed values of the city, and really, in this case, an affront to basic human common sense.
So then, good Mayor McGinn, can you please see to it that the City's fleet of T3s is put up for auction ebay ASAP? And once that's done, let's talk leaf blowers.
"We would use a steam shovel to pick up a dime."
-- Wendell Berry
