Good advice so far. A scooter is a bit more stable, lighter and easier to ride.
Scooter or bike, the risk of using one of these vehicles, especially around town, where you are bound have the majority of your mishaps, is high. As a rider you have no protection except for what you are wearing. A good helmet, long pants, long sleeve shirt and solid shoes are a must. The rough asphalt used on the roads here will shred unprotected skin like cheese in a grater. Too hot for leather bopping around town, but shorts and flip flops are just asking for a world of literal hurt.
Cars/Trucks tend not to give bike riders any road space unless the have to. Potholes are not forgiving to inexperienced riders. It takes some a few attempts to remember that if you stop you fall over if you don't put your feet down and in an emergency stop some forget to put their feet down.
While the air rushing through your hair can be exhilarating, you definitely need good glasses to keep the bugs and the dirt out of your eyes. Your focus on the road ahead has to be unwavering. Unlike a in car, you need to see the glass or other debris on the road before you run over it. You need to pay attention to storm grates, crumbling gutters, low hanging branches, wires etc.
Sure it can be fun, but the general consensus based on the attitudes of other road users, the poor road conditions, and having only two tires instead of four for traction, makes two wheeled transport sensible for only the most attentive riders who already have a fair amount of riding under their belt. In Dominican traffic is not the place to learn to ride as the statistics often remind us.
Excellent advice!
You couldn't pay me enough to rent a scooter over a car.
Dawn