For the longest time, big has been beautiful in America, at least in terms of cars.

But as petrol prices bite into American pocketbooks, US motorists are ending their love affair with the "Yank tank", and many are considering the ultimate step in downsizing: losing two wheels and riding a scooter.

"Americans love cars, especially big cars, and for them to decide to use something different has not been an easy decision," Paolo Timoni, Chief Executive of Piaggio Group Americas, producer of the classic Italian Vespa and Piaggio scooters that crowd roundabouts from Rome to Naples, said.

"But it appears that gas prices at $4 a gallon have been a tilting point that has pushed people towards making the change," Timoni said. Scooter sales ballooned more than tenfold in the United States between 1997 and last year, climbing from 12,000 to 131,000.

The median price for petrol – the point where half the prices are above and half below – in 1997 was $1.18. In mid-June this year, a gallon of gasoline cost $4.08, according to data from the Energy Information Administration. In the first quarter of this year, scooter sales grew by 24 per cent compared to the same period last year, Mike Mount, of the Motorcycle Industry Council, said.

In May, a monthly record 2,758 Piaggios were sold in the United States and a Piaggio official forecast June sales would vastly exceed that record, meaning sales for those two months would be equal to nearly half of the sales in 1997. "The days of inexpensive gasoline appear to be over," Bob Chase, who set out last month with a scooter-loving friend to ride two Piaggios across the US, said.

"People are getting out of their big vehicles and getting into more economical modes of transportation," 72-year-old Chase said.

"I live in the San Francisco area. I have a Piaggio MP3-50 at home in my garage and I ride it everywhere I can. I get more than 110km per gallon on the highway; it'll go 125kph, and, yes, I take it on the freeways," he said.

The rise of the scooter has lent a European flair to many US cities, Chase's riding partner, Buddy Rosenbaum, 71, said. "I'm from New York, and it's remarkable to me how New York is coming to look like Rome: there are Vespas everywhere," Rosenbaum said. "I only use my car when it's an absolute necessity," he said.

The scooter began to take wing on this side of the ocean in 2000 and many Americans embraced it as a mode of transport.

"The same driving conditions that exist in Europe, where millions of people commute on scooters every day – high gas prices and terrible traffic congestion – are becoming a reality in the US," Timoni said.

Scooter commuters can dart in between cars and avoid road jams, but riding a scooter requires a new mindset and isn't for everyone, said Dean Thompson, spokesman of the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF).

"If you're accident-prone, you should perhaps rethink if a scooter or motorbike is the best mode of transport for you," Thompson said.

"People think: I can do this, it's like a bicycle. It's not. You're in the traffic stream mixing it with cars, pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles, buses," he said. "You're not in a metal cage surrounded by 2,000kg of metal." (AFP)