Sydney - Apprentice mechanic Abraham Khouri rides to his Sydney workplace on a scooter rather than in his Honda Civic. "It takes 80 dollars to fill the car with petrol but this is a two-stroke and we are talking just 15 dollars to get to work each week," said Khouri, one of a legion of converts sending two-wheelers flying out of Australian showrooms.
Motorcycle and scooter sales are rising at double the rate of four-wheeled vehicles, with over 64,000 sold in the first half of 2008. Sales were already up 18 per cent in 2007.
Soaring petrol prices, traffic congestion and perhaps a concern over climate change are driving the trend.
"A real scooter culture is beginning to grow in urban areas," said Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries spokesman Ray Newland.
On trendy King Street in Sydney's Newtown, a garage that used to specialize in keeping old V6s on the road is now a Vespa dealership.
Scooters may be trendy, but the biggest growth in the two-wheeled market is in the big cruisers like Harley-Davidson and its Japanese imitators. Sales are up by a quarter and the biggest buyers are the over 40s.
Scooter Federation head Holly Black said economy was behind the surge - and the better brakes on modern scooters. "As an industry, we have seen very few fatalities in the last 10 years. You could count them on two hands," she said.
But it's still the case that the car is king on Australian roads. More than 6 million travel to work by car every day - more than half the workforce.
