According to state law no vehicle with a license plate can be parked on the sidewalk. Many garages won't rent space to scooters and motorcycles. There are no on-street scooter-designated parking spots in the city. These are some of the reasons why many Vespa riders in Manhattan fasten the license plate to the scooter with velcro (see pic), and just pop it off after parking illegally on the sidewalk so that there is no way to identify them. Oh, this neapolitan attitude feels like home… I just wish I had put that heavenly wisdom into practice at the time I was the parking ticket queen of Rome.
Anyway, there is reason to believe the velcro trick has its days counted. With scooter sales in New York City growing 120% per year, the cops can no longer ignore the issue and in some cases they tow scooters parked with their plates removed, treating them as ‘abandoned vehicles’. On the other hand, last September Piaggio Group Americas has paid for parking for scooters at four lots in NYC as part of a campaign to position two-wheel vehicles as a solution that could greatly reduce this nation’s energy consumption, while helping to preserve our environment and reduce traffic congestion. Not only that. With gas prices rising what is most appealing to scooter riders apparently is the joy of ‘pulling into a gas station behind an SUV and seeing them pay 75 bucks’.
I engaged in a little sociological experiment. I registered on a couple of Italian scooter riders forums and posted a comment on the velcro trick, candidly asking wether the same infamous practice takes place in Italy as well. I’m giving my fellow Romans a couple of months to spread the word. And the Ministry of Interior should thank me I didn’t give the hint to a forum of Naples-based riders.
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2 comments:
Still not a match against Sicilians. In Sicily I saw car drivers buying hundreds of white t-shirts with a black stripe running diagonally from the right shoulder down to the waist, so that policemen patrolling the streets will believe the driver is wearing a seatbelt. The lengths to which they go in order not to obey the law make me think that breaking the law is just a sport to be enjoyed.
when u told me this story on skype a while ago at 1st I thought u were joking, but this pic is a good evidence :-D
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