Warthog, you've hit the nail on the "point" but I think you have it the wrong way around. 'Motorbikes' haven't ceased to be viable modes of mass-transport because people are doing less miles on them, they're less viable because they stopped being relevant as a solution to people's transport needs (but are still sufficiently dangerous and thrilling to fit other purposes for now).

Scooters offer cheap reliable transport, easy to buy and insure for the young, easy to ride for the less 'able', economical and "fairly" easy/cheap to fix. They're more practical but often too noisy, smokey(old ones) and poorly ridden to gain acceptance from the rest of society.

Motorbikes have lost the battle of ideas against cyclists in our cities (quiet&clean) and are squandering any advantages they had over cars in and out of the cities (polluting and congesting). Do you want to cycle 10miles to work? Me neither and for most of the year a motorbike could fill that gap. Where do I store my kit? Why do I have to be cold? Why is the fuel economy so poor? The manufacturers' responses to questions like these has been sketchy but it is our inability to get past the pre-historic desire that motorbikes be noisy, smelly and impractical. We buy the magazines, we buy the bikes, we buy into the lies (you'll look good, the birds will love you, real men ride 'real' bikes etc.).

I'll get to the point - what worries me is that if motorbikes aren't seen in future as a good or worthwhile thing they will not continue to be considered in road schemes, will be penalised for their emissions/performance (i.e. waste of energy) and eventually be legislated against/priced off the road. Simples.

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