On an average day, scores of students can be seen scooting around campus on their Vespas or other motorized vehicles.
Brandon Lacaze, manager of Moto Rouge on Airline Highway, said students make up about 40 percent of his business.
The demand for scooters has increased since gas prices passed the $2.50 mark, Lacaze said. The majority of people who own scooters are looking to cut down on expenses like fuel, and Lacaze said scooter riders can fill their tanks for about $6 and it will last for three weeks.
He said riders typically pay about $20 total each month for insurance and gas, and scooters typically don’t require much maintenance.
Lacaze said workers who commute a short distance to their offices are another major percentage of scooter customers, and retirees make up the rest.
Phillip Lewis, service manager for Rad Cycles on Nicholson Drive, said scooters are a good form of transportation for students around campus, but Baton Rouge is not the most ideal city in which to drive one.
“Unless you don’t have very far to go, you can’t really get by on a scooter,” Lewis said.
He said scooters are a more practical form of transportation in New Orleans because of the shortage of parking.
Lewis said scooters can typically go 35 to 40 mph and can get 60 to 80 miles per gallon.
Lewis said name-brand scooters are a wise investment because they are easy to maintain and their parts are readily available. He said Chinese scooters usually come with a smaller price tag but are poorly made and replacement parts are difficult to find.
The vehicles are popular because they’re inexpensive and make it easier to find parking spaces in a crowded area like campus, he said.
Gary Graham, director of the Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation said in an e-mail to The Daily Reveille that motorcycles and motor scooters are considered to be the same type of vehicle.
Currently 118 of these vehicles on campus have registered for parking permits for the fall 2011 semester, Graham said. That’s an increase from the 87 registered in 2007.
“Every time we get a scooter, it seems to sell pretty quick,” Lewis said.
General studies freshman Victoria Menard said she borrows her friend’s extra scooter to get around campus.
Menard said she works on a different side of campus from her classes and can quickly get across campus on her scooter.
“I just ride my scooter because it’s quicker and cooler,” she said.
Menard said she has taken the scooter as far as Bluebonnet Boulevard to save gas but had difficulty staying out of the way of passing cars.
Mechanical engineering freshman Jorden St. John rides his scooter to campus so he doesn’t have to deal with parking, which he called “insane.”
He said he only uses his scooter to get around campus.
 
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Contact Kevin Thibodeaux at [email protected]