100 Years of Scooters: Appreciating the World’s Most Popular Vehicle

In the late 19th century, American towns were abuzz with the kinetic energy of children whipping along sidewalks on homebuilt push scooters. The primitive contraptions comprised of a wood plank and skate wheels, with a handlebar flimsily nailed on. 

The potential in a similar vehicle for adults—augmented with one of the newly invented internal combustion engines—was not lost on a host of inventors. And thus was born the scooter. 

The patent for the motor scooter was awarded (whether deservedly or not) to one Arthur Hugo Cecil Gibson in 1916 for his Autoped. This marked the humble beginnings of a concept that would eventually encircle the globe with utilitarian purpose, serving to shape economies and shorten distances between point A and point B.

Ironically, although America may have served as birthplace of the scooter (the patent was filed in Long Island, NY) the U.S. has been woefully sluggish in embracing the scooter as other countries have. In America, scooters have more often than not been viewed as frivolous toys, as opposed to viable vehicles.