Yeah, no. That’s not the solution.

I have quite a lot of hands on experience in a couple states in America regarding scooters and smaller motorcycles, at a time when scooters (the legal term used here is “moped”) did not require any licensing, registration or insurance to ride on the road. Indeed, mopeds were sometimes called “liquor cycles” because you’d find them driven by those who have lost vehicles or licenses to DUIs.

Mopeds aren’t popular choices for transportation in large parts of the United States because they are not suited to the transportation needs of typical Americans.

In very dense cities, you’re probably better off walking and/or using public transport, because you’re going to be sitting in traffic on that moped.

In your smaller urban environments, you might get by with a moped, but even then there’s enough 45mph stroads that a moped is probably a poor choice. The ~150cc twist-and-go scooter that is highway capable would be a decent choice but that’s legally a motorcycle.

In suburban environments or less dense, your trip to the grocery store is probably down a section of highway. A moped is dangerously slow and carries way too little cargo for a typical American grocery run.

Which is why I traded for my Aprilia RS50. Which is a rare bike in the United States, though it is (or was) common in Europe. This thing was a 6 horsepower superbike; it was built like a MotoGP race bike, because that’s exactly what it is, it’s used in the most junior bracket of MotoGP racing, you graduate from there to 125cc and then on up. In Britain, they’re restricted to 30mph and used as, like, training bikes. A young teenager can ride one with those L plates for awhile before graduating to a higher license that allows higher speeds and more powerful engines. So, on that basis I can assert you are exactly wrong, smaller motorcycles are popular in Europe than they are in the United States because they are over-regulated; an artificial market is created for them. Said artificial market does not exist in the United States.

The distances Americans have to travel, cars are infinitely safer and more useful. I’ve walked this walk. I commuted by both scooter and small bore motorcycle. I’ve crashed every bike I’ve owned, single-vehicle lowsides every one. I’ve ridden in all weather. I rode my motorcycle around a small college campus, and with a 36 mile commute to work. I’ve done long distance riding. It ain’t for everyone.

To get people to start riding bicycles, even electric assisted ones, as a default instead of cars in the United States? You wouldn’t get it done if you rubbed Aladdin’s lamp, it would take more than three wishes. You’d have to change the landscape. The absolute wrong way to do it is just insist that, somewhere else in the world, riding power bikes on the sidewalk is okay, so it should be here, too. No, what happens if you try that is some 15 year old crashes into a pregnant woman on the sidewalk going 25 mph, she miscarries on the spot and all three of you go to prison for abortion.