Do you ride a scooter around town? Maybe even irking me by parking it on the sidewalk? Better yet, do you have passion for your scooter? Do you follow scooter related news, covet the newest Vespas or the oldest vintage Lambrettas? Might you think scootering is “counter culture”?

Then you may be a scooterist, and you should be reading the Washington Metro Area Scooter Authority. There, not only will you find info about scootering in DC, but also two very interesting developments.

First, Rob Downs, the man behind the site, has developed a stolen scooter map. Here you can track DC’s apparently rampant scooter theft and scooter jacking problem. Rob codes each theft himself, an amazing task he’s looking for help to automate, and has thefts/jacks back to 2002.

Scooterist Rally

Next, you can learn about fascinating scooter rallies, where scooterists from all over converge and.. scoot? The last one drew 250 two-wheeling fools. Also, Rob is putting together a cross country ride, from Portland to NYC, that he hopes will end better than last year – he was rear-ended by a semi-truck after riding 2700+ miles. Ouch!

Last but not least, you can learn the difference between a scooter and a moped: mopeds have pedals, scooters and motorcycles do not. The DC MPD draws the line at horsepower & speed, those too small and slow aren’t even mopeds, they are “motorized bicycles”. The rest are treated as motorcycles.

So DC scooterists, don’t go tag-free scootering in the District, you could lose your sweet ride.