Are scooters really that much greener than cars?

Wired’s Mr. Know-It-All has the answer, and it boils down to this: It depends.

He writes:

Older scooters with two-stroke engines emit far more smoggy pollutants per mile than their four-wheeled counterparts. True, you probably get double the fuel economy of a Chevy and can thus crow about your ride’s smaller carbon footprint (and thus smaller contribution to climate change). But your tailpipe may also be belching out 10 to 15 times more smog (nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbons) than that Chevy, to the severe detriment of your city’s air quality.

Scooters from 2006 on, on the other hand, do a little better – and models with catalytic converters are best of all.

Something to keep in mind before you roll up on a Vespa and start carbon-bullying your pals!

Photo by antmoose (Creative Commons)