The following begins a series of mini-reports on items of interest, big and small, gleaned from my recent tour of seven European countries with co-presenters Chuck Nyren and Brent Green, sponsored by Bayard, a leading publisher of publications catering to 40, 50 and 60+ with a readership in excess of 10 million.
Utrecht—Beware the dangerous backstreets of Holland, where an aging population and a cool new “scooter”, make for a potentially lethal combination.
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At the core of this issue is a cutting-edge scooter masquerading as one of those mini smart cars. The vehicle was on display at the enormous 50+ convention in Utrecht that attracted 95,000 visitors from throughout the Netherlands to visit with over 500 exhibitors.
I stopped to admire the crisp clean lines of what I thought was a diesel-fueled zippy new car, referred to as a “JDM.” The presenter set me straight.
“Isn’t this terrific?” she said (in fluent English, once she realized that I had not a clue what she was trying to tell me.) “It goes 45 miles per hour, and all you need is a scooter license to operate it.”
“You mean, like, if you lose your regular driver’s license, you can still drive one of these?”
“Yes. Isn’t that terrific! It looks like a car—but it’s really just a scooter.”
I could easily imagine my dad—whose license was sadly taken away late in life—begging for one of these, just to tootle around Leisure World. And who would have had the heart to deny him, if he could still qualify for a scooter license.
One presumes that this is not something that would be permitted to be driven on highways, but still: even if it’s small, it’s a big hunk of metal, with windows, seats, storage, doors, etc. So, meanwhile, beware the back roads of Holland—and hope that this is one consumer product that doesn’t make it over to America.