CruzCarz shows customers a new side of Santa Cruz while riding scooters

Talk about crappy business models. I expect it to go under in a few months.

I wonder why a 3 wheel motorcycle license is not required? Last I looked, DMV required a special license for motorized trikes. Even people who purchased those ZAP 3 wheel electric vehicles soon found they needed a trike license.

I think it is kinda cute

The proliferation of scooters of various kinds is becoming quite a pain. Motorized scooters, bicycles, and even skateboard looking things blasting around in the bike lanes, between traffic, etc. What is the law regarding riding these things in bike lanes anyway? I see a lot of dangerous manuevers by riders.

I just saw this business last weekend while on a drive around West Cliff area. Looked like a fun way to spend an afternoon tooling around Santa Cruz. Good luck to the women that started this business. Ignore the previous negative remarks and keep getting the word out about your business.

The law for vehicles in bike lanes is the vehicle has to be 2 horse power or less and go no faster then 30mph. Most electric scooters fit the bill as well as those motorized skateboards.

Scooters wrote:

The proliferation of scooters of various kinds is becoming quite a pain. Motorized scooters, bicycles, and even skateboard looking things blasting around in the bike lanes, between traffic, etc. What is the law regarding riding these things in bike lanes anyway? I see a lot of dangerous manuevers by riders.

What a great way to promote tourism in Santa Cruz - yes promote! Tourism is important to us in SC and I love the idea of a new business that helps the community ins such a fun and positive way. Way to go CruzCarz!

a business here once and never did I make the front page.

Just what we need more unstable vehicles on the street

Glad this business appeared! These 3-wheel scooters are excellent- especially in a dinky county with few hills and a strong transportation addiction- residents as well as tourists.

A few years ago, I was fascinated with similar 3-wheel scooters in San Francisco and after seeing them on TV (Evening Magazine- 5) went to SF to specifically rent one. It was like watching a chaotic and crowded environment melt away as the GPS droned SF history into my brain in a very enjoyable way. Loved it! Came back to Santa Cruz to see two 3-wheel Zaps- welcome back to reality.

Go Cars in SF are doing well. Somewhere - sometime - another person might think "I gotta go to Santa Cruz and check out these 3-wheel thingies!" Having this type of business in Santa Cruz is thrilling!

I'd love to see their five-year business plan. Oh, wait, I bet they don't have one. what's going to happen after the tourist season?

If you add more seats, is it still a three-wheeled scooter?

Good luck to them; they're going to need it.

Love the little scooters, but wish they wouldn't have painted their entire building that tacky yellow.

A trike can, I believe, seat 3 by law (same as a motorcycle with a sidecar). Actually, a sidecar can have two seats, the CVC just talks about fastened seats.

A motorcycle can have 3 wheels (intended for sidecars, but also allows trikes, including the 2-in-front and 1-in-rear configuration like the Grinnel Scorpion), but you only need a M1 or M2 motorcycle license to operate a 2 wheel motorcycle.

WOW wrote:

Talk about crappy business models. I expect it to go under in a few months.

Well you cant blame them for grasping at straws. Santa Cruz puts a morotorium on or bans everything that might actually make any money; Like medical pot despensaries, hookah lounges, gun stores, and tatou parlors.

Bah Humbug! Do you doomsayers even know what a business plan is? By the way, I'd like to see your business plan after the State shuts down all entitlement programs. Anybody who is willing to take a risk on a new business idea (legal, for you Local boneheads) and backs it with there own money is due praise.

JJJ wrote:

A trike can, I believe, seat 3 by law (same as a motorcycle with a sidecar). Actually, a sidecar can have two seats, the CVC just talks about fastened seats.

Actually, the CVC mentions -nothing- about fastened seats at all when it comes to the specifications for sidecars. I went over the CVCs forward and backward, the -unabridged- version looking for all requirements.

The only thing they specify is, and I quote from CVC 27800: "or in a sidecar attached to a motorcycle and designed for the purpose of carrying a passenger."

That's it... the CHP has nothing, the DMV has nothing, there is nothing else on the books in the ways of rule or law as to what actually defines 'purpose of carrying a passenger' in regards to sidecars (or trikes). It's a very open ended statement laid down in ink.

Which is why after I met all the other legal requirements to pass the DMV brake and light inspection I was able to get my CHP blue tag on the frame and get -this- on the road 100% legally.

http://moike.net/rgm-done/

And you are correct, there is no special license required to 'drive' a motorcycle with a sidecar or a trike. And oddly enough, you do not need a class 'M' endorsement to operate a motorcycle with a sidecar or a trike either. Which always bothered me because once you add a third wheel to a motorcycle, or take a wheel away from a car, you're left with an amazingly unstable vehicle that should require some proper training to operate in a safe manner on public roads.

The little yellow rental trikes don't have enough power to get themselves into trouble, and the overall CG looks low enough that they'd probably spin before they'd flip if the rear broke traction.

Good for them.

Haters...eat your own.

Now there's an idea for you: Use what amounts to a fun carnival ride to get around town, thus making the entire area an extension of the Boardwalk -- at least in the minds of tourists who take the ride.

Hmm ... I wonder what other ways we might be able to take that simple but powerful idea and run with it?

Bike lanes are for bikes only. I see these scooter people and people riding the small motorcycles in the bike lanes all the time. It is not cool.
Plus it can be dangerous for pedestrians and drivers of cars when they come whipping along and are not seen clearly.

By the way, ZAP of Santa Rosa sells 3-wheeled electric vehicles that do 30-35 MPH, which would be kinder to the local environment in that they would have no tailpipe emissions, and (I believe) would have greater seating capacity. They are also enclosed, so would be appropriate to use on drizzly or rainy days.(The GPS could include a "What to Do in Santa Cruz on a Rainy Day" tour.)

Scooters and tiny engine bikes are gonna be the new future rides in the new "peak oil" culture.
We will also live very close to where we work.
If you look at cars and trucks as huge hunks of iron and aluminum...those stable 4 wheels and huge weight to payload deficit are really an absurd joke (on us) to the environment. A few years from now, if we are still alive, we will look at what we thought was a necessary evil and shake our heads in disbelief. Kinda like watching movies out of the 60's and 70's and seeing these huge Fords and Chevy gas guzzlers, knowing what we now know about the scarcity of oil, and other "heavy carbon footprint" industries.....I hope we get over the 4wheels is cool mentality...sooner than later. sinc scooterdude