Norwich, the city famous for Delia Smith and Colman’s mustard has been dubbed the UK’s answer to Rome after being named Britain’s ‘Scooter Capital’ by Bennetts, the nation’s favourite bike insurer. With almost one in 20 Norwich residents owning or riding a scooter, it’s still some way behind the Italian capital where one in six take to a moped, although it seems Norfolk’s scooter commuters are hot on the Italian’s designer heels and are predicted to overtake them by the year 2020.
Based on actual policyholder data from Bennetts, Norwich raced past the competition, with twice as many scooters as nearest rivals Portsmouth and Leicester and four times more than Bristol and Newcastle. Surprisingly London didn’t even make the top ten, with Liverpool, Cardiff, Sheffield, Birmingham and Glasgow bringing up the rear. Jersey has the least scooters nationally, with policyholders on the island in single figures.
Rome has always been famed for its cosmopolitan way of life and laid-back image with the scooter being long associated with the Italian capital. To combat a growing traffic and pollution problem in the mid-eighties, use of mopeds increased and it seems Norwich is now leading Britain in the charge to cut pollution and congestion, with more people swapping four wheels for two.
Bennetts’ Marketing Director, Mark Fells said of the findings “Our data shows a huge increase in scooter riding across the country and it’s great to see a city like Norwich leading the way for scootering in the UK. With the trend only getting stronger, we predict that Norwich will over take Rome by 2020, as the scooter capital of Europe”
Top Ten Scooter Usage in the UK:- NORWICH
- PORTSMOUTH
- LEICESTER
- BRISTOL
- NEWCASTLE
- LIVERPOOL
- CARDIFF
- SHEFFIELD
- BIRMINGHAM
- GLASGOW
