Twist & Scoot To Open in Intaglia Space
Decatur Metro | July 3, 2008 | 2:01 pm
We’ve been hearing rumblings about a scooter store for months now. Most recently the city teased us in the Decatur Focus with news that a scooter store was coming, but gave few details. Well, thanks to Jeff at Whit’s End, I finally have a name and location for you! ….drumroll please….
Midtown’s Twist & Scoot will open a new store in the old Intaglia space on West Ponce. No details yet as to when, but they certainly couldn’t have picked a better time to expand, with scooter sales going up faster than gas prices. A recent Time Magazine article (“10 Things You Can Like About $4 Gas“) says that Vespa sales are up 109% since last year.
Perhaps the close proximity to our house will help convince my wife of my undying NEED for a sporty little scooter. But unfortunately, MARTA is still a more viable option for me. 
Best of luck to all involved!
[Midtown location photo courtesy of Flickr]
I’m in the market for one of these suckers. Convince your wife scooter’s are the way and we can raise hell together on the streets of Decatur. If not, I can buy a sidecar and you’ve always got a spot, bub.
Scooter mayhem! I love it! And the AJC would definitely do a front page Metro section article on it.
One question: Could I wear goggles if I rode in the sidecar?
Having just come from the (highly successful) benefit at JAVAMONKEY, I always find it interesting that scooters are somehow deemed a better alternative to motor vehicles. They’re certainly not safer (quite the opposite), not quieter (again, the polar opposite), and not cleaner (kinda like riding a lawnmower). So why are we supposed to embrace them? Much like the not-so-smartcars, it seems that the masses consider anything other than a regular vehicle to be an improvement, even if it simply isn’t. Show me an extremely safe, quiet scooter than doesn’t use petroleum; THAT’s an actual alternative.
http://www.zapworld.com/electric-vehicles/electric-scooters/zapino-electric-scooter
Carl, totally true.
My newfound affinity for scooters is being driven by convenience and economics. If MARTA could meet my daily needs and take me where I needed to go, I wouldn’t even be looking at scooters. Unfortunately, my job requires me to pick up and go, often at a moment’s notice. I need reliability in case there’s a press conference, interview change, breaking news, etc. Our office is located in a part of the city that sees spotty service by MARTA and doesn’t allow easy access to other parts of Atlanta. I wish it did. I love transit and it pains me to see MARTA have to scrounge for funding from state leaders that seem to think the mobility options of its economic engine isn’t important.
On the economics point: A co-worker rides his scooter to work. He pays $4 a week in gas costs. I don’t need to be traveling in a gas-guzzling built-for-five beast when it’s just me in my life. So I’m in that crunch where I need to downsize but I can’t eliminate the motor-powered travel all the way because of my location and the lack of easy access to transit. And I can’t afford a Prius.
Now if you can give me an electric scooter that has the oomph to handle Atlanta traffic, it’s on, my good man.
Goggles and a scarf, Decaturite! Goggles and a scarf!
Also, please pardon my grammar in that previous post.
Scooters are safe and not the polution machines that some claim. Mine is a very clean burning four stroke motor getting 55 miles per gallon. I commute on it everyday. Let’s face it, American gas prices were always too low. The market had to adjust and it did. Europeans have been dealing with these kind of prices forever. Scooters are everywhere in Europe and especially in southern Europe where the climate is warm like Atlanta. Many people falsely look at the debate as scooter versus car. This is not the debate. The choice is to be a family with 2 or 3 or even four cars or the family with one car and a scooter and a marta pass. Seven years ago my family chose the latter, and it was one of the smartest moves we’ve made to date. Americans can’t drive whatever we want wherever we want whenever we want. That case is ending in tears for many americans as it should have thirty years ago. Get a scooter– change your life
Amen to that, Steve. We (me, wife, one child) went from being a two car family to one car and a Vespa about 4 years ago and have never regretted it. Granted our circumstances allow it, but that’s because we actively changed them (working from home and whatnot) to do so. Maybe not an option for everyone, but in a lot of cases it’s not an option simply because people are unwilling to change comfortable routines. That’s not the same as “impossible.”
Thanks for the link to the Zapino, Scott.
I guess I’m still wondering where the non-polluting scooters are. All of the ones I’ve seen around town are generally quite foul. It seems that the riders somehow become immune to the fumes, but I can’t be around them. At the JAVAMONKEY benefit last week (which naturally drew a large number of visitors on scooters), the gasoline smell was sometimes thick. Even large modern passenger vehicles like SUVs don’t appear to emit anything like that.
As an aside, I know people who use the scooters to literally travel only a couple of blocks rather than walking since the scooters are sanctioned by the City with the free parking spaces (or some park on the sidewalk). I wish people could get special rewards for using their feet! (I suppose better health is a benefit…well, assuming it’s not a smog alert day.)