Reading the other day about the youngest brother of Baltimore Raven's wide receiver Torrey Smith who was killed riding a motorcycle and it made me confront my own desires to get a bike. A little one, mind you, maybe no more than a fancy scooter. I think they look good and certainly would be economic to drive. But the potential for grave damage in an accident persuades me each time to forget about it. That and the fact that it smacks of old guy trying to look cool. And each time I'm driving and I see a crazy guy (usually a guy) flying in and around traffic on one of those speed bikes, my pendulum of desire swings hard the other way because I know death is probably in their future on that bike. But a scooter? How much trouble could that be?

Effective today, Maryland requires all scooters and mopeds to be titled and insured and their operators and riders to wear helmets and eye protections. That might seem like common sense but until now riders could run around on these machines without helmets and no insurance. I had a very good case come to my firm involving and accident between a pedestrian and a man on a scooter. Unfortunately, the adverse driver had no insurance (he wasn't required to at the time) and the client's insurance policy would not cover her under her Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage because the scooter was not large enough to qualify as a motor vehicle. Thankfully, that loophole has been closed up with this new law.

Still…I could get a scooter, right and not be thought of as too much of a geek.