The problem isn't the scooters, its impatient road users. Funnily people don't get angry about refuse collectors stopping and starting, buses, or lorries which are slow to move, its the small and vulnerable that they have issues with. Cycles, 50cc scooters, even bigger scooters because they CLEARLY can't go fast. How about banning learners from the road too? They go slowly?
The reality is that there are too many road users who are simply too impatient, and wrapped up with their own importance. Quite normal as pedestrians, you stick them in a car and they become assholes. Slowing down occassionally won't make you much later (if at all), and you might even just be able to pay a bit more attention to what is happening around you. But I also agree that when you are a slower moving vehicle you should be cognisant of other road users, and either take alternative routes, and if you have an ability to go on the "built at significant expense cycle path next to the road" then you should be using it (particulary when it is busy). Its not always about "ones rights" but about trying to do what is right for the greater good of all. But the point about dual use cycle paths is valid - the relative speed differences are what causes the problems, and keeps serious cyclists on the road.
I fully agree that 50cc scooters should be allowed to travel faster (as do most of our customers/customers parents/suppliers/training partners who are motorcyclists) - it would make them safer on higher speed roads (and here in the northern burbs of Perth it is actually impossible to go from one suburb to the next without travelling at least some distance on an arterial road that is 70kmh or higher). As with dual-use paths the problem isn't absolute speed, but relative speed to other users. But try telling that to the safety *** who are experts though generally have never ridden in their lives. So the reality is that many 50cc machines are illegally derestricted or modified so that they can be safer for the owner. Its ridiculous that people have to make that choice, but there you have it. With the MTA I wanted them to push to change the legislation, but the feeling was that if they relaxed it on one side, they would tighten it significantly on the other (ie further restricting their use through licensing or age limits), such that the end effect would be less of them on the road (and thus, overall, a bad thing - on the whole car drivers in Perth are now far more "bike aware" since the significant increase, particularly, of 50cc scooters on the roads). Some might say that less 50ccs on the road would be a good thing, but annoyingly despite the different licensing set-ups in each state, there has been no comparative reasearch to show the effect on safety of these different regimes, so we are still basing attitudes on opinion rather than fact.
In summary, road users just need to learn to be a bit more patient. The world isn't going to end if they are inconvenienced for a few seconds or minutes. End of.

Ace Scooters - practitioners to the scooter addicted.
www.acescooters.com.au