Go-Peds: Low-Cost Alternative to Cars

* Re: “Go-Ped Owners Seek Path to Ride,” April 21:

You captured the joy of riding Go-Peds in the photograph but felt compelled to show a less than safe double-rider, with a car in back.

You wrote an informative article that tags Go-Peds with the questionable names “motorized vehicles” and “motorized skateboards” and the accurate names “scooters” and “high-tech gadgets.”

The Go-Ped has three methods of propulsion: walking it, scooting it or motoring it. Two out of three of its uses are without motoring. Therefore it’s in a new category of travel.

I think it could reduce urban car travel by 50%, enabling people to use a Go-Ped for short trips to work or recreation on surface streets. Why lug a 3,000-pound car around if you could zip down to your local market on a Go-Ped for bread and milk?

Less gas is used. The need for parking in the city is reduced. There could be storage racks at the front of supermarkets costing a quarter per bike.

We have a low-cost, low-maintenance alternative to the car. Your article tags them with the name “motorized vehicles,” inviting a police crackdown, rather than calling them what they are, “traveling devices.”

LINDA LEE GRAU

Irvine