Interested in e-scooters, but are they right for me?

You should be able to learn to ride the scooter pretty easily. Experience with a bike would have been helpfull, but it can be learned at any age. One good way to start would be with a bicycle. Maybe you can find a beach cruiser cheap enough at the flea market or second hand store, and if you start falling over, get the training wheels too if need be. Whatever it takes. Very soon you should be able to balance while riding along enough to graduate to the scooter. The speeds and such you will get on the scooter aren't so hard to handle once you get the idea that leaning to turn is good. To go straight to a fast motorcycle is a much more suicidal idea, but the E-scooters really are just fancy looking bikes, and easy to ride. If the two wheel thing looks too be too hard when you try a bike, you might think about a motorized adult tricycle. Great for the groceries, but when I tried it, I didn't like the way it rode at higher speeds. At 10mph they are great.

Riding out it traffic safely is a whole different issue. You need to google up some information on how to ride a bike in traffic safely. Lots and lots of sources for this, including discussion sites like this one, except for bicycles.

The main thing you have to realize is that they actually are trying to kill you, and ride accordingly. Once you get the hang of it, you aren't caught by suprise with the dumb stuff the folks in cars do, and may even realize that in the past, you were doing the same things.

You can ride safe though, but it's up to you to pay attention more than you did in a car. Good luck, I'm sure that you can learn to ride a bike as long as you are not so old as to have poor balance. If so, go for the trike.

Usually you should know and follow all of the rules for cars, and some other rules for bikes and e-bikes.

So, I suggest that you learn enough to get a driver's permit, and a motorcycle permit, and take the written tests, even if you do not actually get the license.

Some e-scooters (mopeds) and e-bikes, in some places, can be operated without a permit, but you should check your region before buying.

There are some excellent classes to actually learn to ride, check with your local police, DMV, and search in the Internet.

Better to learn more rather than not enough.

What type of e-scooter did you have in mind?
Are you able-bodied?

Take care, Gary

Any advice you may have for this newbie would be greatly appreciated.

I also think you should buy a cheap bicycle, just to learn to ride on two wheels. While I'm sure that it's possible to learn to ride a two-wheeler by starting with a scooter, it doesn't seem to me that you appreciate how many times either you and the scooter/bicycle, or at least just the scooter/bicycle will go sliding down the pavement on it's side, at least until you learn the two-wheeled tango. There's a reason that all children start off using training wheels. Are you sure you want to lay your new $1,000-2,000 scooter down on it's nice little Vespa-like fairings 15-20 times (minimum), until you get the hang of it?

It will simply be easier to learn to ride the bike first. Though the scooters have a lot less power than motorcycles, it still can get wild pretty fast when you aren't familiar with a handlebar throttle either. I'll never forget my first motorcycle ride. I tried to learn on 350cc honda I bought and was lucky to survive the first few corners. A bike first will help a lot. You may fall over, but if you do, it won't be at 15-20 mph. Once you get the hang of steering and hand brakes, then off you go on the scooter. Enjoy!

Fair enough

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to talk you out of buying the e-scooter. I'm just saying that you should be planning on not only spending the money for it, but also ~$40-50 for a bicycle helmet and ~$40-50 for a used (think Craigslist) bicycle, so you can learn to ride a bike without tearing up your new scooter. Take it from me, those little fairings on scooters are NOT tough, and they're definitely not cheap to replace.;) Besides, it shouldn't take more than a week or two to learn to ride a bike (probably not more than a weekend), then you can resell it.

Yes, definitely get a single-speed bike. This one would work (brake cables are quite cheap): http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/tor/bik/1224163583.html as would this one: http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/bra/bik/1224027683.html Also, once you're riding, seriously consider going solar. Nothing beats going somewhere, and coming back outside after a few hours, and having the batteries completely topped off. Note, don't buy solar panels, though. They're way too heavy, and way too expensive. Just buy the solar cells (from eBay), and with a little PVC pipe and plexiglass, you can have a two wheeled version of these: http://solarvehicles.org/minivee.html Good luck.