They are essentially a roll cage with wheels, pretty safe actually.
I drove something slightly bigger in Europe, when gas is over 6 bucks a gallon, who the hell cares what the car looks like.
I’d love to get a scooter for going to work and back, why waste money?
I'm seeing people around here start to do that. If you're only commuting a few miles on surface roads in the city, it makes a lot of sense. Probably not feasible when it's raining or snowing, but we also have good public transit available so I suppose that would be a good backup on those days.
The tough spot is middle-class people who live in the outer suburbs but have to commute 40 or more miles each way. They've got to be feeling the cost of gas these days.