Asphalt cowboys
The other day, lockdown boredom took me to the Wild West Cowboys via A Fistful of Dollars, and it got me thinking, electric scooter riders are modern day cowboys, riding their noble steed across the city, taking control of their own destiny.
Let’s look at the evidence.
- Our favoured mode of transport is not limited to timetables, delays or cancellations. If we want to ride into the vista, we simply saddle up, grab a hold of the reins/handlebars and feel the liberating breeze in our hair
- We look cool doing it. Like the iconic image of The Man with No Name straddling his horse, biting on a cigarillo, half his face cast in mysterious shadow by a brown ten gallon hat, there is an undeniable enviability of seeing someone taking control of the handlebars of life on an electric scooter
- Work meets play. Like the cowboys of yore would spend the day on the ranch herding cattle on the back of their trusty companion, before riding to the saloon, an electric scooter is the ideal way to get to and from work, while revelling in the fun provided by the two-wheeled wonder
- We are the answer to a great many problems. Just like cowboys in Spaghetti Westerns would often deal in a kind of vigilante justice when the sheriffs were overwhelmed, we are starting to see authority figures recognising the potential benefit of our way of life, be it for the environment or reducing reliance on crowded public transport. In the same way the fabled cowboy would ride into town to run off the wrong-doers, our two wheels are being looked to as a solution for the current crisis
There you have it.
Of course, I am focusing on the heroic, well-intentioned cowboy (also see: Woody from Toy Story), not the rascals who terrorise locals, because that’s NOT the image we portray.
Oh, and just like the Spaghetti Western married Italian filmmaking with American lore (and were often co-productions with countries including Spain and Portugal), the staff at OnBoards are multi-lingual, speaking English, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese!
Jim Carrey once said of The Man with No Name that ‘he had no name, so we could fill in our own.’
Well, with OnBoards‘ incredible selection of electric scooters and bikes, filling in your own name has never been easier.
Yee-haw!
