She fills up for 'pocket change'

When officemates ask what kind of fuel economy she gets with her new ride, Gina Fry says she thinks it's around 90 mpg.

She isn't sure yet. After three weeks of commuting, she's still on her first 1.2-gallon tank of gas.

Fry lives in West Raleigh and works downtown for the state Division of Archives and History. For years she made the eight-mile drive in a BMW, and she paid the state $15 a month to park her car in a nearby garage.

Now, she zips to work on an orange-and-white 50cc Sym Mio scooter.

"I got it because I wanted to stop using so much fuel," said Fry, 51. "That's really the reason, not just a concern about the price."

She's serious about being a scooter commuter. She plans to sell the Bimmer. And -- this will be the truly radical step, as any state worker can tell you -- she's ready to give up her taxpayer-subsidized, bargain-priced parking space.

"I'm committed to doing this," Fry said. "I've got a rain suit and everything."

A 50cc scooter is not a motorcycle, and it's not made for heavy traffic. Top speed is about 45 mph. You can drive one without a license, tags or insurance.

Sales of the small scooters are up more than 40 percent in North Carolina compared to last year "because of gas prices," said Johnny Edwards, owner of Scooterz, a Raleigh dealership. "As fast as we can get them in, we pretty much sell them," he said.

Fry paid $2,100 for hers. She buckles her safety helmet and rides mostly on residential streets. Her route includes Glen Eden, Lake Boone, Ridge, Dixie, Brooks, Clark, Peace.

She meets some drivers who don't want to share the street with "a girl on a scooter," she said. Cars and trucks use left-turn lanes for illegal passing.

She was waiting to turn left at a stoplight near Cameron Village last week when a Toyota driver beside her decided she wanted to turn left, too -- from the right-hand lane. When the light turned green, the Toyota driver roared in front of Fry, gabbing on her cell phone all the while.

"She was so impatient that she could not stand being behind a scooter," Fry said.

Fry says she easily keeps up with the 35mph speed limit on most streets but isn't comfortable pushing her scooter much faster.

Riding on the back streets actually gets her to the office more quickly than her old route down Glenwood Avenue.

"And parking is awesome now," she said. She locks her scooter on a railing outside a rear entrance.

Fry and her husband are on a waiting list for another pint-sized vehicle, the German-made Smart Car.

Meanwhile she's ready for the day, whenever it comes, that she'll stop her Mio 50 at a gas pump for only the second time.

"Pocket change will fill it up."

Heavy trucking

Scott Wilson of Apex sees a lot of dump trucks pouring out of a construction site, tearing up the pavement on Holland Chapel Road near N.C. 751 in Chatham County. He asks the Road Worrier what can be done.

"DOT has patched some of the potholes a couple of times, but the trucks tear it up within 24 hours," Wilson said by e-mail. "It doesn't seem right for our tax dollars to pay for something the grading contractors are causing."

If those trucks are over the legal weight limit for Holland Chapel Road, the owners could be slapped with heavy fines. To report overweight trucks that tear up your roads, call the State Highway Patrol and ask for motor carrier enforcement.

The Troop D office in Greensboro is responsible for Chatham County. It can be reached at (336) 334-5621. Troop C, based in Raleigh, covers 12 Triangle counties: 733 -3911.